Shared responsibility aspects of the dispute settlement procedures in the Law of the Sea Convention

Abstract

The concept of shared responsibility seeks to capture the situation where a multiplicity of actors contribute towards a single harmful outcome. This article examines the procedural aspects of shared responsibility as they appear in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. There are several instances where shared responsibility may arise in the law of the sea, the regulation of fisheries, the protection of the environment and the deep seabed regime (where special dispute settlement clauses apply) being the most obvious ones. The first part of the article (Section 2) discusses the general dispute settlement procedures of the Convention and raises the issues that are relevant to shared responsibility. Among others, the question of consent and the issue of joinder of cases are examined. The second part (Section 3) focuses on the more relevant in terms of shared responsibility deep seabed dispute settlement regime.