INTRODUCTION. The international legal content of the concept of sustainable development, so common in international treaties and sometimes expressed in different terms, undoubtedly requires modern clarification, as well as its place in the system of international law.  Firstly, it is interesting to answer the question of how ideas of sustainable development have resulted in their crystallization as a concept of international law. Secondly, using treaty sources of the international law of the sea, where this notion is particularly common, it is meaningful to identify the intentions of States parties to such treaties to consider sustainable development clauses as legal obligations. Thirdly, it is important to determine whether these clauses now constitute a principle of the international law of the sea or whether they retain the status of separate treaty obligations that are not interrelated.  

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The article is based on the analysis primarily of the norms of the international law of the sea, in which the term «sustainable development» is applied, with reference to the scientific and legal literature and judicial decisions relevant to the topic.  The research involves methods of legal construction, legal modeling, analysis and synthesis, systematic, struc­tural-functional, formal-logical, formal-legal, histori­cal and chronological methods.  

RESEARCH RESULTS. The analysis of international treaties and other international legal instruments applicable to the issue has shown that the long-standing ideas of «sustainable development» are now normatively well-established; that the provisions of international treaties on sustainable development have already developed as an inter-branch (cross-cutting) principle of international law at the intersection, primarily, of the international law of the sea and international environmental law; that States undertake in practice explicit obligations and exercise relevant rights in the framework of upholding this cross-cutting principle.  The authors’ vision of the content of this principle is offered and its various manifestations in the international law of the sea are shown.  

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The study critically evaluates the prevailing view in the Western international legal literature that the idea of sustainable development was suggested by the 1987 Report «Our Common Future» (the Brundtland Report). It has been shown that the idea predates this report, and that the initial mechanisms for sustainable development had already been reflected in existing interna­tional treaties by 1987. The suggestion is made that the international legal concept of sustainable development has several cumulative components that together define its content. Among these there are elements that are part of this concept primarily because they are means of achieving sustainable development goals, having a much narrower scope if interpreted in isolation. The international legal principle of sustainable development seeks to resolve the tensions primarily between the States’ right to development and their duty to protect the environment, serving as a nexus that ensures that neither the one nor the other is neglected. Its social dimension is undoubtedly significant, although it has been interpreted very differently in the interna­tional legal literature.  In the context of contemporary international law, it is expedient to assert an inter-branch (cross-cutting) nature of the sustainable development principle: its legal content extends beyond the scope of specific branches of international law, including international law of the sea, international environmental and economic law. However, most international treaties of a universal and especially regional character that contain some form of sustainable development clauses currently refer to sources of the international law of the sea, which may certainly change in the future.

INTRODUCTION. Southeast Asia is home to some of the most important sea lines of communications (SLOCs) which are not only significant maritime con­uits for merchant vessels, but military vessels of the superpower nations as well. While there have never been any casualties involving nuclear-powered submarines in this region, the fact remains that the num­ber of such vessels traversing Southeast Asian SLOCs is predicted to rise in years to come.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. This research is a result of analysis of international treaties applied to navigation of nuclear-powered submarines. Some of the materials used for preparing this paper include 1) the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982; 2) AUKUS pact. The methodological basis of the re­search consists of traditional methods: general scien­tific methods (in this case, based on general principles of law) and specific methods.

RESEARCH RESULTS. Other than China, Aus­tralia is another State within this region projected to own nuclear-powered submarines by 2040 through AUKUS. These developments have raised concerns among leaders of Southeast Asian nations, particu­larly Malaysia and Indonesia, the caretaker States of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore as well as the Indonesian archipelagic sea lanes. These maritime waterways are traversed by thousands of vessels each year, including nuclear-powered submarines belong­ing to nations already possessing them.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. This article concludes by reiterating that international law should provide an equitable balance between navigational rights and protection of the marine environment particularly in sea lines of communications which are subjected to liberal navigational rights, in relation to nuclear-powered submarines.

INTRODUCTION. Based on the study of the international law, doctrine and practice of states, the article analyzes the content of the institution of the historical rights of the state to the sea areas, its correlation with the provisions of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, as well as the legal status of the Sea of Okhotsk and the possibility of its adjustment in in the context of a possible statement by Russia that it has historical rights to its water area.  

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The issues raised in the article are structurally divided into three main groups. The first one is related to the study of the rea­sons for the emergence of the institution of historical rights of states to maritime areas in the international law of the sea, as well as its correlation with the legal mechanisms for the delimitation and use of maritime spaces defined by the 1982 UN Convention. The second is devoted to studying the structure of this institution and definition of the concept and content within its framework of such key notions and categories as “historical bays”, “historical waters”, “historical legal foundations”, “historical title of the state” and some others. The third group is directly connected with the definition of the fundamental possibility and potential scope of the extension of the Russian Federation historical rights to the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk.  

RESEARCH RESULTS. When writing the work, the authors proceeded from the fact that despite the limited potential of Russia's possible actions to defend its his­torical title to the Sea of Okhotsk, they can not be considered unpromising in the foreseeable historical per­spective. At the same time it should be borne in mind that the way to achieve success in solving this problem should not lie in declaring its water area an inland sea or historical waters of Russia, but in legitimizing by our state a number of its exclusive historical rights in this maritime area based on Russia's vital interests.  

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The content of the institution of the historical rights of states to maritime spaces, as well as the new political reality, give the Government and the State Duma of the Russian Federation all the necessary grounds for raising the question of a partial change in Russia's position on the legal status of the Sea of Okhotsk and the development of a new strategy for upholding Russia's historical rights to its water area, as through the adoption of unilateral internal legal acts, and through the implementation of a consistent policy to disseminate and uphold this point of view in international relations within the framework of negotiations with foreign states and the activities of relevant international bodies and organizations.

INTRODUCTION. Modern maritime law is replete with a variety of legal acts of the interstate level, but the problems of ensuring security in this area remain relevant. At the international level, it is very difficult to establish a clear connection between the rules of law and actual legal relations. In order to strive to realize this, it is necessary to constantly analyze the real situation, trying to improve it or put it in order with the help of legal mechanisms, which is what this study is aimed at. This work is devoted to the analysis of relations in the field of merchant shipping from the point of view of ensuring security and stability in order to understand the possibility of improving international legal norms. As a territorial scope, interstate relations of Asian countries, including Russia, were considered as the most promising and interesting region from a scientific point of view, including in the context of increased measures of negative economic pressure on Russia from a number of states in North America and Europe. In the current political and economic conditions, not only the doctrine turns its attention to this direction, positioning the vector of domestic development as Eurasian, and sometimes completely Asian.  

MATERIALS AND METHODS. To prepare this work, an analysis of international legal acts, law enforcement practice was carried out, and expert assessments were monitored on various issues of ensuring the safety of navigation in the Asian region. The results obtained are based on the consideration of economic, political science, management and other literature in addition to the works of legal scholars. The comparative legal method was used, as well as deduction and synthesis.  

RESEARCH RESULTS. As a result, it is proposed to consider the possibility of taking additional measures aimed at expanding the functionality of the captain of the vessel to ensure the safety of maritime navigation, including countering illegal actions on board. At the level of the domestic legislation of the Russian Federation and the national legislations of other states of the region, establish clear rules for determining the law applicable on board a ship and extending the jurisdiction of the relevant state to relations arising on a ship. At the same time, the provisions of the domestic legislation of each state must comply with the rules of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of December 10, 1982. Grant broader powers to captains of ships in terms of implementing measures to prevent crimes on board the ship and transfer the person who committed the crime to representatives of foreign law enforcement agencies.  

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. International merchant shipping is a very complex area of public relations with a large number of entities that have different legal status and, accordingly, are related to each other in the most diverse ways. The main threats to the implementation of these activities are piracy, offenses on board a ship in isolation from the mainland, and illegal extraction of biological resources. Fishing by residents of some states in the territorial waters of others is a topical issue.  This work is devoted to the study of the main trends in the development of the system for ensuring the safety of international navigation from different points of view. As an object of research, legal relations in the Asian region are taken as the most diverse from social, economic, political and other points of view. Also, the countries of Asia, including Russia, are among the most rapidly developing, which demands new approaches to the relationship between subjects that require their own legal regulation. As a result, separate proposals have been developed, subject to the adoption of which it will be possible to optimize law enforcement practice on ensuring the safety of navigation.

INTRODUCTION. The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea imposes obligations on states to protect and preserve the marine environment. They are responsible under international law. In order to ensure prompt and adequate compensation for all damage caused by marine pollution, states shall cooperate in implementing existing international law concerning liability and in developing procedures for adequate compensation, such as liability insurance or compensation funds  

MATERIALS AND METHODS. In the article the author analyzes international treaties that form the basis of the regime of international legal liability for marine pollution from ships, such as the Oil Pollution Damage Convention 1969, the International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances by Sea 1996, the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Fuel Pollution Damage 2001. The research is based on general scientific methods of knowledge (system and structural approaches, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction), as well as special methods used in legal science (comparative legal, historical legal and formal dogmatic).  

RESEARCH RESULTS. Based on the analysis carried out, the author came to the following research results: Together the three conventions - the CSA, the COW and the Bunker Convention - form a single regime of liability for marine pollution, the source of which are ships, and strive for identity of all definitions in order to avoid inconsistencies in their interpretation.  

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. In the course of the analysis, the author referred to the debatable points expressed in the scientific literature concerning the completeness of the legal regulation of liability for marine pollution from ships. After which the author made a conclusion that, although a significant amount of marine pollution accounts for pollution from ships, the existing international legal mechanisms for regulating liability issues in this area can be regarded as sufficient.

INTRODUCTION. In 2017, the US Department of Defense issued its Annual Freedom of Navigation Report. This is the first report released by the US government under the Trump administration. The report listed the geographic location of the US Freedom of Navigation (“FON”) Program all over the world. This document briefly describes an excessive maritime claims by coastal states’ activities in each case. Besides the South China Sea, the main US concern in Asia is Southeast Asia, which became one of the playing fields for the US FON Program, in particular the Java Sea in Indonesian archipelagic waters.  

MATERIALS AND METHODS. This article examines the US DoD’s Annual Freedom of Navigation Report for Fiscal Year 2016 and the provisions of Indo­nesian national legislation. Further, the author analyses the applicable rules of international law, such as the relevant provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (“UNCLOS”). In this research, the author relies on the existing doctrine on the legal issues underlying the topic of the article. The methodological basis consists of general scientific and special research methods, including analysis, synthesis, and systematization, as well as formal-legal, formal-logical and critical-legal methods.

RESEARCH RESULTS. This article argues that the US FON Program in Indonesia is not about the partial submission of archipelagic sea lane passage but rather the controversy created by Indonesian national legislation. In particular, when Indonesia’s government requires prenotification and prohibits aircraft to come across the route normally used for international navigation. Therefore, this paper seeks to evaluate what are the different views between Indonesia and the US in terms of the regulatory framework in the Java Sea and what could be done in addressing these issues.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The root of the disagreement between the US and Indonesia is in diverging interpretations of Article 53(1) of the UNCLOS; more specifically, whether this Article creates an obligation for archipelagic States to establish archipelagic sea lanes passages. In the author’s opinion, this disagreement should be resolved through bilateral negotiations aimed at elaborating a common understanding. Furthermore, the exercise of freedom of navigation should not infringe upon the coastal State’s rights, including its sovereignty.