Looking at the Montreux Document from a Maritime Perspective

The Montreux Document on Private Military and Security Companies was drafted with a view to apply to land-based settings. However, one of the prime markets of the private security industry today is the protection of merchant ships from criminal threats like piracy and armed robbery at sea. This warrants a discussion on the pertinence and applicability of the Montreux Document to security services provided in the maritime environment. Accordingly, this article engages a maritime perspective, exploring the implications that the maritime context and its specificities have on the underlying assumptions and concepts of the Montreux Document – most notably the three-fold structure of addressees, which are the Territorial, Contracting and Home States – as well as on selected substantive rules. It concludes that the Montreux Document is pertinent to maritime security services, but that it needs to be interpreted specifically with regard to its effective application at sea

Die demokratische Mitwirkung an der Entstehung und Umsetzung rechtsetzender Beschlüsse internationalen Rechts

This article discusses the role of the Swiss parliament and people in the adoption and implementation of secondary law. In Switzerland, secondary law is often incorrectly perceived as technical law and thus unworthy of democratic participation. However, its content and function do not differ from treaty law per se, and the idea that its adoption is a prerogative of the executive branch must be revisited and replaced by a more participative concept. Yet the current legal framework and doctrine on democratic participation in the adoption of international law is heavily treaty-driven and little heed is paid to secondary law. This does not accurately reflect the reality of norm creation at the international level, which has become increasingly diverse, dynamic and complex. Democratic participation during the adoption of secondary law is crucial because its statute-like nature often leaves no room for any further implementing legislation at the domestic level

Ungelöste Probleme der Pirateriebekämpfung vor Somalia

S. 7 (Internationale Ausgabe), S. 9 (Zeitung für die Schweiz

Autonomous Offender Ships and International Maritime Security Law

Non-state actors have already started relying on autonomous ships to commit maritime crimes - most notably to victimise other ships and infrastructure at sea. This begs the questions of whether international maritime security law is capable of accommodating the use of autonomous crafts by criminals. After discussing the autonomous technology that perpetrators currently use, this chapter will carve out the main difference between the commission of maritime crimes by traditional and autonomous offender ships. This will reveal that, at present, such criminals predominantly use remote-controlled, explosive-laden ships without any on-board crew, in order to wreak havoc at sea. The scenario lends itself well to an analysis of whether these acts amount to piracy as defined by article 101 of the LOS Convention. Moreover, it allows for an assessment of whether the 1988 and 2005 SUA Conventions, respectively, are fit for purpose or whether the SUA offences need to be amended in order to accommodate the use of ships not carrying a crew to endanger the safety of navigation