KMI International Journal of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
Korea Maritime Institute
Article

Coastal State’s Consent to Conduct Marine Scientific Research in the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf: a Procedural Condition or a Discretionary Power?

Pierandrea Leucci*
*President and Legal Advisor at ASCOMARE (Associazione di Consulenza in Diritto del Mare); and ResearchFellow in Law of the Sea (Asia Team) at the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule ofLaw (MPFPR). Email: leucci@ascomare.com.

© Copyright 2021 Korea Maritime Institute. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Jun 30, 2020

ABSTRACT

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) subjects the conduct of marine scientific research (MSR) in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and over the continental shelf of the coastal State to a consent-based mechanism which is regulated under Part XIII of the Convention. On the one hand, the coastal State enjoys the right to authorize MSR in such maritime areas; while on the other hand, there is a requirement under Article 246(3), “in normal circumstances”, to grant its consent to researching States and institutions. However, the question arises ‘how can the intimate nature of coastal State’s consent – i.e. its discretionary character -and the obligation to grant it “in normal circumstances” be reconciled in practice?’ This article will analyze and discuss the nature and scope of coastal State’s consent in Article 246 UNCLOS to determine whether the right to authorize MSR in the EEZ and over the continental shelf accounts to a mere procedural condition or rather to a real discretionary power.

Keywords: marine scientific research; consent; Article 246; normal circumstances; UNCLOS