Prof. Alexander Proelß and Prof. Alina Miron
“United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: A Commentary”
Prof. Alina Miron interviewed Prof. Proelß on his book: United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: A Commentary
On 12 September 2017, the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law hosted a book launch of the recently published United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: A Commentary (Beck/Hart/Nomos, 2017) edited by Professor Alexander Proelß (University of Trier). The event took the form of an interview conducted by Professor Alina Miron (University of Angers).
The conversation centred on the “why”, “how” and “what” of the Commentary. The first part of the interview, the “why”, addressed the reasons for creating a commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Among these motivations was the need felt within the academic community to have a first point of reference for the Convention which also took into account the ample state practice and case law of the past decades. The theme of the discussion then shifted to the “how”, during which Professor Proelß talked about the challenges one can face as the editor of a large endeavour such as the Commentary. Topics included the importance of maintaining a uniform structure throughout the book and working with contributors hailing from different legal traditions. As the conversation turned to the substance of the UNCLOS, the “what”, the interviewer and interviewee discussed the notion of the Convention as a “Constitution for the Oceans”, its status as a living instrument, as well as the mandatory UNCLOS dispute settlement system. The interview was followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
