The Contribution of the Compulsory Jurisdiction Mechanism to the Effective Application of Dispute Settlement System of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

This chapter attempts to assess the contribution of the procedure of compulsory jurisdiction to the effective application of the UNCLOS ¹ dispute settlement system, by reference, especially, to the work of ITLOS. I will start by making a few observations related, namely, to the important role of the Convention’s dispute settlement system in ensuring the workability, as well as the integrity, of the Convention’s legal regime. Then, I will attempt to highlight the pivotal role so far played in this regard by the compulsory jurisdiction provisions of that settlement system.