Dispute settlement in the law of the sea convention: The military activities exception

Abstract

Abstract This paper considers the military activities exception in the settlement of disputes part of the Law‐of‐the‐Sea Conference's Informal Single Negotiating Text. It notes that although the exception, on its face, seems to favor naval powers, in practice it would not. The emerging rules of the law of the sea are favorable to naval operations and it is more likely that the military activities exception would be used by coastal states resisting superpower naval activities. The military activities exception will remove activities from dispute settlement procedures which are almost certainly in need of peaceful resolution. Notes ∗Mark W. Janis is a J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts.