St Mary’s University: Sobey School of Business

Legal Aspects of Business II: Winter 2022

My First Presentation

Munrajsingh Baichoo

A00433904

Slide 1:

Hi everyone, my name is Munrajsingh Baichoo and I am currently from Mauritius which is an island
found in the Indian Ocean. During this presentation, I will be talking about the law of the sea and its
implications in the contemporary world.

Slide 2:

So what is the law of the sea? Broadly speaking, it is a body of public international law governing the
geographic jurisdictions of coastal States and the rights and duties among States in the use and
conservation of the ocean environment and its natural resources.

All laws can either be subdivided into either “Public” or “Private” and if it is a public body of law,
then it means that it applies between Governments as opposed to between Individuals. The reason
why we characterise the law of the Sea as International Law is because it applies between countries,
states or non-state actors and it governs the Geographic Jurisdictions of coastal states. So if your
country is not a coastal state and is a landlocked state, then the law of the Sea might be an area of
lesser concern.

Countries like Canada that have a lot of ocean territory are very interested in the law of the sea and
international law because it impacts on sovereignty questions and economic issues. The law of the
sea is not just only based on how we use the sea but also on how we conserve the seas. So there are
element within law of the sea that has to do with environmental law. In fact, there is quite some
overlap between these two and most of the time there is an interplay between these forces. 

Slide 3:

As most of us would believe, Maritime law and Admiralty law fall within the scope of Public Law.
However, that is not the case. Maritime law and Admiralty law are de facto private laws related to
individuals.

As we can see in the slides, maritime law is a private law relating to ships and the
commercial business of shipping. On the other hand, admiralty law talks specifically about navigation
and shipping. Clearly, there is some overlap here because law of the sea talks about navigation and
the use of the seas. Similarly, international law can overlap with domestic law as we will see later.

So, the main body of International Law is UNCLOS. It stands for United Conventions for the Law of
the Sea and it came about in 1982. The United States and Canada recognize that these Conventions
reflect customary international law and complies with most of their provisions. 

So there's 17 parts, 320 articles and nine annexes to UNCLOS. UNCLOS is a very broad convention
that applies in all matters of law related to maritime states. 
Slide 4:

UNCLOS stands for the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea.

The convention is also sometimes referred to as the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea
treaty. UNCLOS, as a law of the sea came into operation on 16th November 1982.

Slide 5:

When we’re talking about nautical law, we have to know about maritime zones. Understanding
these zone will allow you to better understand the case that I will present. Consider the following
map which illustrates the maritime zones.

The maritime zones recognized under international law include the baselines, internal waters, the
territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the continental shelf, and the
high seas. 

Slide 6:

Baselines: They are the “start points” for determining limits for all maritime zones

Internal Waters: These refer to waters on the landward side of the baseline for e.g the Hudson Bay

Territorial seas: which are any area of water within 12 nautical miles over which a sovereign state
has jurisdiction

Slide 7:

Contiguous zones: Found between Territorial Sea and up to 24 NM from baseline.

Exclusive Economic Zone: Areas of the sea not exceeding 200 NM from Baseline.

Slide 8

Now let us see how UNCLOS relates to dispute resolution.

The dispute over the Marine Protected Area arises against the background of longstanding
differences between Mauritius and the United Kingdom. The Chagos Archipelago comprises a
number of islands located in the Indian Ocean, including Diego Garcia.

Until 1965, the United Kingdom accepted the Chagos Archipelago as part of the Territory of
Mauritius, over which it exercised colonial authority. That year, it dismembered Mauritius by
purporting to establish a so-called “British Indian Ocean Territory”, a new colonial territory
consisting of the Chagos Islands, which it excised from Mauritius.

Slide 11

By 1973, the United Kingdom had forcibly removed the entire indigenous population of the Chagos
Archipelago, comprising a community of approximately 2000 persons calling themselves
Chagossians.
Slide 12

Article 111 of the Constitution of Mauritius states that “Mauritius includes…the Chagos Islands,
including Diego Garcia”. By its 1977 Maritime Zones Act, Mauritius declared a 12-mile territorial sea,
a 200-mile EEZ and a continental shelf to the outer edge of the continental margin around all of its
territory, including the Chagos Islands.

In 1989, Mauritius concluded an Agreement with the European Economic Community on fishing in
Mauritian waters, which recalled that “in accordance with [the 1982] Convention, Mauritius has
established an exclusive economic zone extending 200 nautical miles from its shores within which it
exercises it sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing the
resources of the said zone, in accordance with the principles of international law.”

Slide 13

In 2010 the United Kingdom purported to establish a Marine Protected Area to cover the entire 200
mile zone that the United Kingdom has purported to declare around the Chagos Archipelago. The
United Kingdom purported to bring the Marine Protected Area into force on the 1st November 2010.
The establishment of the Marine protected area violates the 1982 UNCLOS, to which Mauritius and
the United Kingdom are party.

Slide 14(Verdict and Conclusion)

On February 25, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its advisory opinion on the legal
consequences of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago. The decision was not favourable to the
UK, as it concluded that the process of decolonization of Mauritius was not lawfully completed when
the country was granted its independence, because it was conducted in breach of the already
crystallized right to self-determination.

Slide 15 and 16(QUIZ)