Current Legal Developments Mauritius/United Kingdom

摘要

Submission to Arbitration of the Dispute on the Marine Protected Area around the Chagos Archipelago On 20 December 2010, Mauritius initiated proceedings against the United Kingdom under the dispute settlement provisions of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC), concerning the creation by the United Kingdom of a marine protected area (MPA) comprising the entire exclusive economic zone around the Chagos Archipelago.1 This is the latest development in the multifaceted disputes involving Mauritius, the former inhabitants of the Chagos Islands and the United Kingdom, parts of which have been submitted to British and American courts,2 the European Court of Human Rights,3 and other negotiating fora. This brief note presents the content of the application, puts it in context by referring to the genesis of the dispute and the proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights and briefly comments upon the many interesting aspects of the case.