ITLOS Advisory Opinion Case – Day 3

Well its all over, and what a day the last day was.  First, Nauru, which was driving the request for the AO through the Council of the International Seabed Authority, made a 1.5 hour statement that elicited sympathy for development and legal certainty claims, but had little to do with the questions posed (it must be seen, especially the second speaker).  Then, right before lunch, the UK, through Sir Michael Wood, challenged a major thesis of my submission and that had me working right through lunch on a response.  Wood claimed that our use of extra-Conventional responsibility and liability rules was unwarranted under the terms of UNCLOS — A claim completely at odds with Arts. 304 and 253 of the Convention.  On account of this, because my time was limited, I ditched two lesser arguments and embroidered on my three main submissions, which then had me presenting a speech that was different than the one I had submitted to the Registrar before-hand.  This, in turn, created problems for the all powerful interpreters and resulted in the President asking me twice to slow down the pace of my submission.  Still, I think it went very well for us (we wrap up the proceedings, I am the very last speaker, following Russia and IOC) and it will be interesting to see how much the Chamber picks up.  Yours truly in action.