Zbornik Radova Pravnog Fakulteta u Splitu (Jan 2008)
Unilateral acts of states in particular in relation to the dispute between Slovenia and Croatia in the Northern Adriatic
Abstract
The author analyze in this paper unilateral acts of States in the law of the sea with particular emphasis on the Slovenian Law on the proclamation of the protected ecological zone and of the continental shelf of 2005, as well as its Decree on the determination of fishing areas of 2006. With these acts is in breach not only with its obligations from the 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention, but also with the basic legal principle that the land dominates the sea. According to this principle many times confirmed in the practice of international courts and tribunals, it is the land which confers upon the coastal State a right to the waters off its coast. Hence, in the absence of coastal entitlement, ther is no valid legal title to adjacent maritime areas. As a consequence, Slovenia's unilateralacts have no basis in international law. They could be interpreted as Slovenia's position that its internal acts and claims have primacy over Croatian legal rights and interests in the disputed areas. These Croatia's rights and interests are fully based on general international law, especially such as codified in the 1982 Convention. Slovenia's stubborn claims would be a reflex of the long time obsolete doctrine on primacy of municipal law over international law, at least when the relations between Slovenia and Croatia are at stake.
