In its history, Poland was usually more oriented to land than to the sea. For many centuries we have not been able to see the opportunities and potential created by the coastal location of our country. In the current strategic documents in Poland, there are also no proper references to the maritime security of the state, although we are a member of both NATO and the European Union. The article presents the creation process in 2015–2017 and the content of a unique document devoted to this issue: Poland’s Strategic Concept for Maritime Security, which was born thanks to the efforts of “enthusiasts” of maritime affairs from the Naval Academy, Shipbuilding Council and the Institute of General Józef Haller under the leadership of the National Security Bureau. In the authors opinion, the document is to form the basis for work on the future maritime security strategy of our country, and also become the “engine” of public discussion in Poland on maritime security issues and the effective use of the coastal position of the state for economic development.
The author analyses legal issues of naval presence in the world ocean in the context of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) in terms of striking balance between doctrines of freedom of the sea and restricted access.
Military operations at sea remain to be prominent. UNCLOS does provide for naval presence in the world ocean as it isessential not only for defense and protection of interests of coastal nations, but also to perform their treaty obligations. The burden to enforce law and order at sea rests on large naval fleets and it remains to be so in foreseeable future.
The Arctic takes in part of Russia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Alaska (USA), Greenland (an autonomous Danish territory), Iceland and the Arctic Ocean, which is covered with ice and constitutes the center of the Arctic. There have been disputes between Denmark, Canada, Norway, Russia, and the USA concerning the borders o f the continental shelf of the Arctic Ocean. The author describes the achievements of the Russian expedition, “Arctic 2007, ” and the way in which Russia uses the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea. The essay also describes how the convention regulates the problem of the border of the continental shelf. He considers that in the future it may come to the partitioning of the Arctic Ocean’s continental shelf, along with the simultaneous fixing of “concessions” allowing the use of shipping lanes in the Arctic by the international community.
International armed conflicts in the twenty-first century will not be limited only to terrestrial territories of the opposing forces. Seas will not only be used for long term dislocation and concentration of forces, but will again become a theater o f war operations. Future armed conflicts will have a significant impact on international shipping activities since 90% of world trade is conducted via maritime shipping. Thus, it can be concluded that all the countries of the world are deeply dependent on undisturbed and free shipping trade. In this article, the author focuses on the issue of protecting neutral shipping. Naval war law and maritime neutrality are issues described by recognized legal frameworks that apply to international conflicts at sea. They do, however, have a number of deficiencies, which renders difficult the effective protection of neutral shipping from the negative impacts of war. One of the problems is the scope of the application of the maritime neutrality law. Another problem is the lack of the obligation of a neutral country to execute the necessary monitoring with the aim of preventing its citizens from cooperating with one or all of the parties to the conflict. Additionally, the warring parties will rarely be able to identify the real character of a cargo ship. The will in the international community to codify naval war law and maritime neutrality will be lacking in the near future.
Although the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) aims to regulate maritime safety in general, it omits terrorism at sea, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, illegal immigration, intelligence gathering and vessel traffic monitoring. The Convention excludes intelligence exchange on illegal activities at sea such as piracy, terrorism, human and narcotics trafficking, illegal fishing and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. UNCLOS does however operate as a framework convention since it provides infrastructure upon which UN agencies may take specific measures to address particular problems. For instance, UNCLOS serves as foundation for 80 legal documents in the fields of environmental protection and safety management.
As maritime safety issues are of common interest, multinational cooperation is inevitable. Common good, the author argues, should take precedence over particular interests of nations.
This article is a first endeavor into Polish defense policy matters by Polish Academy of Sciences’ Maritime Law.
Among the signatories of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982) there are 9 states bordering the Baltic Sea. Presently the friendly relations between those nations render baltic naval operations less important than far seas operations. This is also true with the Polish Navy.The issue of delimitation of maritime borders and establishment of contiguous zone is of utmost importance to Polish national security. Since 1972 there are ongoing negotiations between Republic of Poland and the Kingdom of Denmark regarding contiguous zones. It is the longest running unresolved border dispute in the Baltic Sea area. There is also a degree of controversy surrounding roadstead of Świnoujście and Szczecin ports located in Bay of Pomerania.The article formulates five conclusions of both general and detailed nature regarding the UNCLOS significance for Poland’s national security.
In an effort to fight terrorism, the author proposes applying the visit and search law not only on the high seas but also in territorial waters. This is a controversial viewpoint as current international law does not permit this law to be applied at all in case of terrorist threats. Additionally, territorial waters come under the exclusive jurisdiction of coastal countries. The full implementation into practice of a common, internationally accepted definition of terrorism should not be anticipated in the nearest future. The author of the article discusses the Rome Convention of 1988 on counteracting illegal acts that threaten the safety of ocean-going vessels, which was laid out following the attack staged by Palestinian terrorists on the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in October 1985.
The Northern Sea Route is the shortest shipping lane connecting European part of Russia with the Far East and Syberia. The search for a route to China and India, undertaken by the English, Dutch and Russians, went on from mid 16th century until the end of 19th century. Its importance in the present day is exemplified by the traffic: 2007 alone saw 10 million tons of goods shipped along the Route.
The Northern Sea Route is the apple of Russia’s eye. It plays a major part in the Transport Strategy of the Russian Federation until 2030, Russia also produced Concept of the Northern Sea Route Development until 2015 and a draft newlaw specifically addressing shipping along it.
A crucial factor in economic feasibility of the route is the state of relations between members of the Arctic Council (the United States, Canada, Russia, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Denmark), the observer states (Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain and Poland) and the states that requested observer status (China, Japan, South Korea).
The San Remo Manual is not a legal document. It was prepared by a group of experts in the area of naval conflict who took part in a series of round-table meetings between 1988 and 1994. The San Remo Manual is the modern equivalent of the Oxford Manual of the Laws of Naval War (1913) which regulated the relations between hostile forces. The San Remo Manual takes account of international practice, technological development, the content of the UN Charter, the Convention on the Law of the sea (1982), law relating to air traffic, and environmental law. The author of the article discusses the content of the Convention on the law of the Sea from 1982 in relation to the formulations in the San Remo Manual. Since 1995, the San Remo Manual has been obligatory material for training and instruction in the navies of NATO states. It has not yet been translated into Polish.
The authors attempted to present the state of disputes regarding the delimitation of marine areas based on a discussion of the practices of countries in the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan region. The authors describe the disputes regarding the islands of Senaku (Diaoyu) between both China and Taiwan and Japan and those over the Dokdo (Takeshima) archipelago between the Republic of Korea and Japan. There are many similarities between these two marine territorial disputes. The core of the disputes is land that is devoid of significant economic importance. Due to this, these areas were not previously of interest to coastal countries. They came to the forefront when their location facilitated determining exclusive economic zones. This intensified when evidence of crude oil and natural gas resources was detected in these areas. Tensions eased when geological reports revealed that initial estimates were overly optimistic. The fundamental cause of disputes over archipelagos is that they can be used to determine exclusive economic zones. The problem is compounded when the politicians of Eastern Asia incite historical remembrance. This is especially evident in the cases of Japan, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, and China, whose governments are, to some extent, hostages of ultra-nationalistic factions.