Recent Articles & Notes
ILJ Online
In December, 2023, the United States announced the boundaries of its extended continental shelf (ECS), which represents the outermost maritime zone over which it exercises sovereignty. The United States, however, is not a party to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the major treaty regime governing the law of state territorial waters. As a result, it's unilateral declaration raises a number of questions including the status of its extended continental shelf boundaries under customary international law and treaty law and whether as a non-signatory party, the United States's ECS boundaries can receive binding finality under UNCLOS. This post explores theses outstanding questions following the United State's announcement.
The United States faces a significant challenge with the increasing complexity of migratory pressures at its borders. Volume XLVII staff editor Avery Bell discusses how the United States might improve its immigration policies by learning from the European Union's approach. The post explores how a "mandatory yet flexible" system could relieve pressure on border states and enhance overall immigration management.
Given the First Amendment's unequivocal free speech clause, how far states and public entities must go to protect speakers' rights is more unclear than one would think. Here, Volume XLVII staff editor M. Mendel Pinson compares the law in the United States to a similar framework in the United Kingdom, which provides the state far more leeway to abridge the expression of all speakers in another hostile audience context.