Public International Law

• A state is defined as a community of persons more or less numerous, permanently occupying a definite portion of territory, having a government of their own to which a great body of inhabitants render obedience, and enjoying freedom from external control according to the 1933 Montevideo Convention.
• The elements of a state include the people, the territory, the government, and sovereignty.
• Jurisdiction is the power or authority exercised by a State over land, persons, property, transactions, and events.
• Prescriptive jurisdiction pertains to the ability of the State to define its own laws with respect to any matter it chooses.
• Enforcement jurisdiction pertains to the ability of the State to enforce the laws it has created.
• Judicial jurisdiction is simply civil or criminal.
• The territoriality principle states that the State may exercise jurisdiction only within its territory, with exceptions for certain types of jurisdiction.
• The Geneva Conventions and their additional Protocols prohibit arbitrary deportation or forcible transfer of population or unlawful confinement.
• The Geneva Conventions and their additional Protocols prohibit taking of hostages.
• The Geneva Conventions and their additional Protocols prohibit compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile power.
• The Geneva Conventions and their additional Protocols prohibit willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial.
• The Geneva Conventions and their additional Protocols prohibit willfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health.
• The Geneva Conventions and their additional Protocols prohibit unjustifiable delay in the repatriation of prisoners of war or other protected persons.
• The Geneva Conventions and their additional Protocols prohibit extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.
• The Geneva Conventions and their additional Protocols protect sick, wounded and shipwrecked persons not taking part in hostilities, prisoners of war and other detainees, civilians and civilian objects.
• In case of a non-international armed conflict, serious violations of common Article 3 to the four Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, include violence to life and person, in particular, willful killings, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; committing outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment; taking of hostages; passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all judicial guarantees which are generally recognized as indispensable; and other serious violatio
• The Geneva Conventions and their additional Protocols prohibit torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments.
• The next paragraph then provides that the coastal State cannot levy execution on or arrest a foreign ship for the purpose of any civil proceeding except if such proceeding involves obligations or liabilities assumed or incurred by the ship itself in the course of its voyage through the waters of the coastal State.
• The general rule is that ships (not aircraft) of all States enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea (not through internal waters), but the passage must be continuous and expeditious, except in cases of force majeure.
• Submarines and other underwater craft are required to navigate on the surface and to show their flag.
• Violation of the right of innocent passage may be grounds to hold a State liable.
• For civil cases involving commercial ships, Article 28, par. 1, of the UNCLOS provides that the coastal State cannot stop or divert a foreign ship passing through the territorial sea for the purpose of exercising civil jurisdiction over a person on the ship.
• The Supreme Court ruled that the method of computing baselines provided in the UNCLOS and integrated into the Philippine Baselines Law was merely a statutory tool to demarcate maritime zones and not a means to delineate territory.
• Abiding by UNCLOS is a means of giving notice to the rest of the international community of the scope of the maritime areas that the Philippines has an established right to, and the extent of such right.
• In the case of Magallona vs Ermita (G.R. No. 187167), the constitutionality of the Philippine Baselines Law, which was amended to harmonize it with the provisions of the UNCLOS, was questioned.
• The Philippines, being an archipelagic nation, demarcates its baselines according to the straight baselines method, which is expressly allowed under Article 47 of the UNCLOS.
• The rules on jurisdiction would depend on the nature of the ship involved, and whether action to be pursued is civil or criminal in nature.
• The benefits of harmonizing our domestic laws on baselines with the guidelines found in the UNCLOS were explained in the case of Magallona vs Ermita.
• Archipelagic waters are the internal waters of an archipelagic State.
• The amendment of the Baselines Law to conform with the UNCLOS does not affect the claims of the Philippines over disputed territories such as the Spratly Islands and Sabah.
• The nationality principle states that the State has jurisdiction over its nationals anywhere in the world, based on the theory that a national is entitled to the protection of the State wherever he may be, and thus, is bound to it by duty of obedience and allegiance, unless he is prepared to renounce his nationality.
• The protective principle states that the State has jurisdiction over acts committed abroad (by nationals or foreigners) which are prejudicial to its national security, territorial integrity, political independence, or any other vital interests.
• The passive personality principle states that the State exercises jurisdiction over crimes against its own nationals even if committed outside its territory.
• The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the primary document in international criminal law.
• Rules exist as to how to measure the continental shelf, but the rules are less clear cut when it comes to delineating the continental shelf where there is more than one claimant State.
• International Humanitarian Law, also known as the law of war or law of armed conflict, is a set of rules which seek, for humanitarian reasons, to limit the effects of armed conflicts.
• International criminal law is the body of public international law that establishes individual criminal responsibility for international crimes, such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and aggression.
• The submission of information to the UNCLCS comes in the form of a claim which must be supported by scientific and technical data, and can only be recognized once such is approved by the UNCLCS.
• The generally accepted core international crimes are war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and aggression.
• Where the coastal State opts to set the outer limits of its continental shelf farther than 200 nautical miles from its baselines, Article 76, paragraph 8 requires that State to submit information regarding such excess to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shell (UNCLCS).