Georgios Anthrakefs / Ανθρακεύς ΓεώργιοςThe Right to Exploit Offshore Hydrocarbon in the Southeastern Mediterranean in the Light of Public International Law

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The originality of the present dissertation and its contribution to the development of legal science can be summarized as follows: As expressly stated in this dissertation, the literature on the subject of the dissertation has been dealing with offshore hydrocarbon exploitation rights for a long time and so far used the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in The Hague (hereafter “ICJ”) as the sole basis to resolve long-standing maritime dispute between Greece and Turkey and Turkey with the Republic of Cyprus.

This dissertation shows for the first time that this long-standing maritime dispute was not considered in the light of European Union law (hereafter “EU law”) and could not be in line with the autonomous legal order of the European Union. What has been disregarded so far is that the Convention on the Law of the Sea (hereafter “LOS Convention”) has been primary EU law since June 23, 1998 (see Official Journal of the European Communities, L 179/5). However Turkey since September 12, 1963 signed the Ankara Agreement (hereafter "the Agreement") with the European Economic Community for commercial and economic purposes. Therefore the present dissertation proposes for the first time in order to resolve long-standing maritime dispute of Turkey as an EU candidate country with both Greece and the Cypriot Republic as EU Member countries, are brought before the European Court of Justice (hereafter "ECJ") in the light of this Agreement.

The settlement proposed by the dissertation addresses the question of whether Turkey's ratification and application of LOS Convention falls within the scope of the Agreement. Article 34 of the ICJ Statute does not allow the EU, as a supranational body, to participate in any way in a settlement between EU Member States and a candidate country for EU membership. Likewise, the present study proposes for the first time the pending maritime settlement in relation to the Cypriot Republic and Greece as EU Member States - after prior consultation and agreement with the EU Commission - before the ECJ. This is done firstly because of a higher legitimacy of the ECJ towards third countries in the Southeastern Mediterranean and especially towards Turkey, if they want to contest a political maritime settlement between Greece and the Cypriot Republic and secondly because of the compatibility obligation with the provisions of LOS Convention (see Articles 279 and 280) as customary and written international law and at the same time as primary EU law.

The literature has not yet addressed this latter settlement case and as a result, the present dissertation has completely closed this legal gap. Therefore, this dissertation confirms its full originality and contribution to the development of legal science.

Ihr Werk im Verlag Dr. Kovač

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