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© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
A. Del Vecchio, R. Virzo (eds.), Interpretations of the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea by International Courts and Tribunals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10773-4_12
The Interpretation of the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea
in the Chagos Marine Protected Area
Arbitration: The Influence of the Land
Sovereignty Dispute
Mario Gervasi
Abstract This chapter aims at answering the question of the contribution of the
Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration to the interpretation of the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). In applying to an Arbitral
Tribunal convened pursuant to Part XV UNCLOS in 2011, Mauritius alleged that
the United Kingdom was not entitled to unilaterally declare the Marine Protected
Area in the Chagos Islands and that, in any event, the Area was incompatible with
the UNCLOS. It is here argued that the precedential value of the Award for UNCLOS
interpretation purposes is undermined by ambiguities that are due to the relevance
of the land sovereignty dispute over the Chagos Archipelago. In particular, when
Mauritius was still a colony of the United Kingdom, the Chagos Islands were
detached from Mauritius to form the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT): for the
last 40 years Mauritius has claimed sovereignty over the Archipelago. The chapter
illustrates that, in the Award, the more the land sovereignty dispute has a bearing on
the issue at stake, the more the interpretation of the UNCLOS turns out to be ambivalent. The ambiguities in the interpretation of the UNCLOS weaken the value of the
Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration also with respect to the very existence
of the Marine Protected Area and the land sovereignty dispute itself.
M. Gervasi (*)
University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Faculty of Law, Rome, Italy
e-mail: mario.gervasi@uniroma1.it
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
A. Del Vecchio, R. Virzo (eds.), Interpretations of the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea by International Courts and Tribunals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10773-4_12
The Interpretation of the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea
in the Chagos Marine Protected Area
Arbitration: The Influence of the Land
Sovereignty Dispute
Mario Gervasi
Abstract This chapter aims at answering the question of the contribution of the
Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration to the interpretation of the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). In applying to an Arbitral
Tribunal convened pursuant to Part XV UNCLOS in 2011, Mauritius alleged that
the United Kingdom was not entitled to unilaterally declare the Marine Protected
Area in the Chagos Islands and that, in any event, the Area was incompatible with
the UNCLOS. It is here argued that the precedential value of the Award for UNCLOS
interpretation purposes is undermined by ambiguities that are due to the relevance
of the land sovereignty dispute over the Chagos Archipelago. In particular, when
Mauritius was still a colony of the United Kingdom, the Chagos Islands were
detached from Mauritius to form the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT): for the
last 40 years Mauritius has claimed sovereignty over the Archipelago. The chapter
illustrates that, in the Award, the more the land sovereignty dispute has a bearing on
the issue at stake, the more the interpretation of the UNCLOS turns out to be ambivalent. The ambiguities in the interpretation of the UNCLOS weaken the value of the
Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration also with respect to the very existence
of the Marine Protected Area and the land sovereignty dispute itself.
M. Gervasi (*)
University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Faculty of Law, Rome, Italy
e-mail: mario.gervasi@uniroma1.it