The UN Convention on the Law of the sea (1982) establishes that the bottom (and what lies beneath it) of seas and oceans which are outside the state jurisdiction known as territorial waters, and its resources belong to all humanity. The Convention distinguishes three consecutive phases o f activities that are focused on resources that lie within coastal territorial waters: a. search; b. exploration; c. exploitation. Access to reserved lots is restricted. Developing states were granted 15 years precedence over other investors. A company was granted 15 years to decide if it wished to start activities on that lot. The contracting party is also obliged to offer a company participation in the activities on reserved lots as partners in a joint venture. This is connected with the sharing among partners of extraction rights (rights to minerals extractedfrom territorial waters). Cooperation within the framework of a joint venture with an investor, professionally prepared to conduct activities in territorial water, especially well allows a business to use the partner’s knowledge, technology and experience in deep-sea mining. The author considers that developed states will dominate in the beginning phase offuture exploration and exploitation of coastal territorial waters.

The obligation to make the initial sale of fish by public auction is being introduced in Poland. However, selling fish by auction does not itself guarantee that limits on fishing are observed. Fish auctions operate on a “non-profit” basis. However, there is still an increase in the price o f fish sold by virtue of the fee taken to cover the cost of the auction. There is no doubt, however, that fish auctions free fishermen from activities connected with preparing fish for sale, with finding a buyer, and even with finding insurance to cover payment for goods supplied. The author of the article considers that trade in fish by means of auctions should be voluntary. The fishing system in the EU is based on observation, documentation and the inspection of vessels.

The UN Convention on the Law of the sea (10 December 1982) contains provisions that create the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. In the twentieth century the conviction has grown in the international community that conflicts should not only be solved by diplomacy, but also by arbitration and international adjudication, which would both issue judgments and offer expert opinion. The majority of EU states chose the International tribunal for the Law of the sea as the first international organ foreseen in Article 287 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Up to now, the Tribunal has considered 15 cases, 12 of which were connected with fisheries. The Tribunal has demonstrated that its procedures are speedy, transparent, and effective. The author of the article mentions all cases pending before the Tribunal in Hamburg from 1997 to 2008. All court costs are covered from the Tribunal's budget. The UN General Assembly in its annual resolutions referring to assessment of the Tribunal’s work underlines “the important role and the authority of the Tribunal in interpreting and implementing the Convention. ” As legal matters now stand, the International Tribunal for the law of the sea can consider any case brought by any state, including, therefore, piracy. It can do this not only on the basis of the UN Convention of 10 December 1982, but also on that o f all other international treaties that give it relevant jurisdiction.

The demarcation of ocean areas requires a consideration of a whole range of legal provisions. But there also exist many aspects of an extra-legal nature which have a substantive effect on the ultimate course of ocean borders. Demarcation has not lost its contemporary importance either from a legal or from a political point of view - for example, in the case of the Snake Island dispute between Ukraine and Romania, the dispute over the Spratly and Paracel islands, and the dispute between Japan and Russia about the Kuril Islands. The author of the article predicts that in the immediate future we must count on a growth in the importance of the demarcation issue. She is a proponent of the most commonly applied method in international law o f settling disputes of this kind - that is the principle o f equidistance. In accordance with the UN Convention (10 December 1982), she thinks that when one is dividing up the territory o f a shelf area or of economic zones, it is vital to come to an appropriate solution o f the dispute.

Artykuł poświęcony jest zjawisku porzucania marynarzy przez ich pracodawców morskich. Kwestia ta od kilku lat jest przedmiotem zainteresowania dwóch organizacji międzynarodowych: Międzynarodowej Organizacji Pracy (ILO) i Międzynarodowej Organizacji Morskiej (IMO). Wydały one w tej materii wspólne wytyczne - ponieważ nie mają one jednak charakteru wiążącego, armatorzy nadal naruszają prawa marynarzy. Spektakularnym przykładem takiego naruszenia jest przedstawiona w artykule sprawa statku “Olga J ”. Przypadek ten jest charakterystyczny dla współczesnej żeglugi, gdyż statek był własnością spółki zarejestrowanej w Belize, czarterowany był przez armatora cypryjskiego, a podnosił banderę Hondurasu. Załoga międzynarodowa: kapitan Grek, marynarze z Ghany, Wysp Zielonego Przylądka i Senegalu. Statek zatrzymany w bułgarskim porcie Burgas, początkowo przez PSC, następnie aresztowany przez władze bułgarskie. Kapitan porzucił załogę, zostawiając ją bez środków do życia, doszło do incydentów z władzami bułgarskimi. Członkowie załogi przez kilka lat starali się o pomoc w różnych organizacjach, w tym w związkach zawodowych. Wreszcie próbowali wykorzystać przepisy o ochronie praw człowieka. Autor przedstawia reperkusje prawne z tym związane.

The Consolidated Convention of the ILO on work at sea was accepted on 23 February 2006, during the Ninety-Fourth session o f the International Labor Conference of the ILO in Geneva. The whole session was dominated by the problems of the maritime sector and conditions of work at sea. Work had been begun in 2001 on the consolidation of the Convention and recommendations connected with this sector. The author discusses the Thirty-fifth Convention of the ILO, but the Maritime Labor Convention “absorbs up to 87 ILO acts. ” It is intended that the MLC be a modern legal instrument that will attain the status of a General Maritime Legal Labor Codex, bringing together all conventions and recommendations accepted since 1919. The incorporation o f the MLC o f2006 into the EU legal system and those of its member states will take place in stages. The EU wishes to identify itself with the MLC’s provisions. Swift ratification - in the opinion of the European Commission - would indicate the EU’s leading position in the international arena, and this would encourage other members o f the ILO to ratify the Convention. The principal aim o f the MLC o f2006 is to achieve and maintain homogeneous labor conditions in the maritime sector, and also to ensure the fairest possible conditions for competition.

At both state and federal level in the USA there exist various instruments to protect the maritime environment. The general conception of protection is to base it on the construction of a protected area. In 2006, there existed at least 500 areas under protection. These were created by more than 100 federal and state administrative offices. The development of environmental protection law is moving in the direction of an appropriate management of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans. In US legal doctrine it is stressed that US jurisdiction extends up to 200 nautical miles from the US shoreline. Coastal states have a right to regulate the legal status of the first three nautical miles of the oceans that touch their coasts. The doctrine of public trust is derived from common law. Its essence is the recognition that certain natural resources - the waters and bottom of coastal seas and large lakes - are of considerable importance for society as a whole. They cannot be given into private hands and controlled by private owners. The concept of protected maritime areas first emerged during the meetings of the World Congress of National Parks in 1962. Protected maritime areas on a federal level take various forms: maritime national reserves, national parks, national areas for wild life refuge, national natural monuments, areas o f fishery management, and threatened habitats. The author of the article discusses the legal acts of Presidents Clinton and Bush relating to maritime protected areas. The establishment of such areas is consistent with tendencies observable in the UN.

This article has taken on contemporary relevance because of the acts of piracy off the coast of Somalia. The UN, NATO, the EU, and the IMO (International Maritime Organization) are addressing the issue of piracy. The African Union is also involved in security operations in Somalia. The author discusses the decisions of the Rome Convention (1986) on combating illegal actions taken against security at sea. It is also worth examining the legal rules accepted by ASEAN with the aim of combating maritime piracy in north-east Asian waters, especially in the Malacca Straits. These, however, do not remove the sources of piracy - poverty, the weakness of state organs, corruption, and the black market. The international community, mainly within the UN, should adopt legislation that will avoid and more effectively combat maritime piracy.

Gazociąg północny (Nord Stream) od momentu ujawnienia projektu międzynarodowej opinii publicznej stał się najgłośniejszą i najbardziej kontrowersyjną inwestycją w Europie w ostatnich latach. Projekt zakłada budowę rurociągu z Federacji Rosyjskiej do Niemiec na międzynarodowych wodach wyłącznych stref ekonomicznych, w których obrębie prawo morza zapewnia wolności komunikacyjne, włącznie z układaniem tego typu instalacji. Wybór przez konsorcjum Nord Stream jednej z najdłuższych możliwych tras gazociągu, którego budowa jest znacznie droższa niż budowa na lądzie, świadczy o podjęciu decyzji na podstawie przesłanek politycznych, a nie ekonomicznych. Doprowadziło to do niespotykanego od dawna podziału politycznego w regionie na państwa, które potencjalnie odniosą korzyści z inwestycji, i na państwa, w których interesy ta inwestycja godzi. W związku z tym planem pojawiły się problemy związane z zasięgiem jurysdykcji krajowej na morzu, a nawet delimitacją obszarów morskich (spór polsko-duński). Jedną z istotnych z tego punktu widzenia kwestii jest istnienie w Zatoce Fińskiej pasa wód międzynarodowych - „ korytarza morza pełnego ”, którego likwidacja poprzez rozszerzenie morza terytorialnego i ustanowienie granicy fmsko-estońskiej mogłoby uniemożliwić realizację projektu. Bardzo ważną rolę odgrywa tu także aspekt ekologiczny związany z budową i użytkowaniem gazociągu oraz z oceną oddziaływania inwestycji na środowisko, ze szczególnym zwróceniem uwagi na zagrożenie uwolnienia zalegających dno Morza Bałtyckiego bojowych środków trujących z czasów drugiej wojny światowej. W publikacji podkreślono przede wszystkim wybrane prawne i polityczne możliwości oddziaływania przez Polskę na inwestycję, a poza tym zasygnalizowano znaczenie działań wewnątrz Unii Europejskiej oraz słabe strony polskiej administracji rządowej w kontekście planów rosyjsko- niemieckich. Po przedstawieniu założeń projektu w artykule zwrócono uwagę kolejno na zagadnienia ekologiczne związane z budową gazociągu, problem korytarza morza pełnego i gazociągu oraz związek między projektem a delimitacją polskiej i duńskiej wyłącznej strefy ekonomicznej w rejonie Bornholmu.

Punitive damages is a quasi-punishment that aims at prevention. It is not known under European law. They are awarded in exceptional circumstances. Its purpose is to punish the perpetrator of an insidious and intentional illegal action. The author describes the story of the tanker Exxon Valdez, which struck rocks off the coast of Alaska on 23 March 1989. The captain Joseph Hazelwood was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident. Because of the resultant pollution thousands offishermen applied for compensation, as did the owners of businesses connected with the maritime environment and of shoreline real estate. Exxon Shipping reached many settlements with plaintiffs, but thirtytwo thousand fishermen and owners of shoreline property rejected settlements, and sued Exxon demanding indemnity and the imposition of punitive damages. On 16 September 1994 a jury imposed punitive damages to the sum five thousand million dollars along with an indemnity of 507.5 million dollars. On appeal the quasi punishment was reduced to 4.5 thousand million dollars. The Appeal Court fixed punitive damages at 2.5 thousand million dollars. Both sides appealed to the US Supreme Court. The Supreme Court considered whether the punitive damages imposed on Exxon were consistent with the principles of maritime law. On 25 June 2008 it finally determined that in cases similar to that of Exxon Shipping the relation of punitive damages to indemnity should be 1:1, and reduced 2.5 thousand million dollars to 507.5 million dollars, which was the indemnity awarded to the plaintiffs.

This essay, for the first time in Polish scholarly literature, discusses in detail the situation of the “Loader” under the Rotterdam Rules - a convention accepted by the General Assembly of the UN on 11 September 2008, and ready for signature on 23 September 2009. The General Assembly of the UN recommended that by virtue of the place where the convention on contracts for the international carriage of goods wholly or partly by sea is to be signed\ the convention should be called the Rotterdam Rules. According to the Polish Maritime Codex, a Loader is a person who by performing the duty of a freighter supplies a transporter with a load for carriage. The Rotterdam Rules assume that a loader is a person who has entered into a contract for carriage with a transporter. The Rotterdam Rules stipulate that the loader is liable, without limitation, for loss or damage incurred by the transporter, if the transporter can prove that the loss or damage is the result of a breach, on the part of the loader, of the duties that pertain to him as a result o f the Convention.

This article discusses different types of maritime arbitration. In the introduction, the author distinguishes between ad hoc arbitration and permanent courts of maritime arbitration. The author draws attention to the fact that not every institutionalization of arbitration means that we are dealing with a permanent court of conciliation. In addition, the role of maritime courts of conciliation is changing because inter alia an increasing amount of business arbitration is dealt with via proceedings in maritime cases. Next the article discusses the structure and procedural principles of many examples of maritime arbitration. The author divides these into the following: the Anglo-Saxon group (London and new York arbitrations); the European group (The Maritime Chamber of Arbitration in Paris, the ICC/CMI Arbitration regulations, The German Court of Arbitration, The Dutch Court of Arbitration, The Russian Maritime Arbitration Commission); and the Eastern group (examples of arbitration in China, Japan, Singapore, and India). One of the author's conclusions is the necessity of referring to the subject of maritime arbitration in the new Polish Maritime Codex which is being prepared by the Maritime Law Codification Commission.