6th Legal

Topic Update!

Download the topic update (pdf)

 
General Assembly 6th: Legal
Utkarsh Misra
6thLegal@bruinmun.org

 
Dear Delegates,

 
I would like to welcome you all to BruinMUN 2011, General Assembly 6th Legal committee. My name is Utkarsh Misra, and I’m currently a junior majoring in Mechanical Engineering at UCLA. I’ve been participating and organizing Model United Nation conferences ever since sophomore year of my high school back in New Delhi, my hometown. This will be my sixth year.

 
Apart from being an ‘MUN-er’, I’m also an avid musician and singer, and a part of the UCLA Medleys A cappella, a community service based singing group. I actively contribute to my fraternity Delta Phi Beta, and love watching soccer in my spare time. After pursuing my undergraduate degree in engineering, I plan to travel and work for some years before returning to India to pursue further education.

 
This year, for BruinMUN, we have two very pertinent, yet challenging topics for the sixth legal committee: Counterfeiting, piracy and drug trade is a growing economic and social menace. It acts as a growing power source to rogue elements threatening the security and peace of nations thus jeopardizing their overall development. Law of the seas, on the other hand, is a domain within international law has been an omnipresent source of debate. Central to this debate is the conflict between small and large coastal, and land-locked nations regarding their rights and restrictions in coastal and open seas.

 
Due to the intriguing and multifaceted nature of these topics, I expect every delegate to question others and themselves, about the nature, scope, and the future of these problems. Delegates should be able to critically analyze historical mistakes and triumphs with respect to each topic. In doing so, I expect the committee to be able to apply the resulting conclusions to the situations as they exist in the world today, and hopefully find appropriate and innovative solutions. Finally, I expect to have a lot of fun with all of you!

 
I look forward to seeing you all in action. I hope you will all emerge from this conference as mature and progressive individuals, having learnt something new about the world and yourselves. Don’t hesitate to email me about any questions you may have about the committee or anything else. Happy researching, and peace out.

 
Sincerely,

Utkarsh Misra
GA 6th Legal, Chair.

 
Topics

Download Topic Synopsis! (pdf) Updated June 1. Document is password protected.

Topic A: Law of the seas
International law restricting regarding the sea has existed since the seventeenth century in the form of ‘Freedom-of-seas’ doctrine, which limited national rights and jurisdiction over the oceans to the narrow belt of sea surrounding a nation’s coastline. The remainder of the seas was proclaimed to be free to all and belonging to none. This corpus of law evolved in many ways in the coming centuries in response to the concern for the overuse of fish stocks and threat of pollution to the sea routes around the globe. More and more claims, conflicts, and sovereignty disputes arose as maritime powers competed to maintain a presence across the globe on the surface waters and even under the sea.

These conflicts are even more relevant today with the implications of change in global climate patterns. The recent trends of depreciation of the arctic ice cover have triggered what is referred to as “Scramble for the Arctic”- a situation where the 6 nations (Russia, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Canada and the United States have laid territorial claims to sections of the seabed.
Another facet that is similarly affected by rising sea levels is the future of island and archipelagic nations. The international community needs to remedy and review the existing sea laws to account for the imminent loss of land and sovereignty that the citizens of these island nations will be facing, and focus on innovative and practical solutions for the same. The involvement of the international community with the law of the sea should aim to seek appropriate and applicable solutions to current and unresolved issues facing the world. At the same time, solutions to problems imminent in the near future should be acknowledged and discussed. Alliances and Strategies should be built such that these issues are successfully tackled and a comprehensive vision for the expansion of international law of the sea should be created.

Topic B: Counterfeiting, piracy and drug trade
Counterfeiting, piracy and drug are problems facing various nations internally. However, in the context of the rapid growth in international trade, the trade of counterfeit and pirated products and drugs has grown significantly in the last few years, escalating the problems to new scales at the global level.

Despite the fact that the definition of intellectual property is elusive and constantly evolving, international organizations have rapidly adapted their laws to the new and emerging implications of change. However, there is a lot that needs to be achieved. The 6th global congress that took place on 2-3 Feb, 2011 to combat counterfeiting and piracy was hosted by WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization). The aim of this congress stems from the reasons underlying the conception of WIPO itself in 2004 the first of which is the need for global collaboration and mutual reinforcement in the form of policing, and customs, and creative policy-making from both international and private organizations. Another important objective of the international community is to educate the intellectual property owners and global businesses about the social and economic risks of these crimes. The international community should seek to eliminate global counterfeiting for the common benefits such as increase in tax revenues, protection of jobs and industries and attraction of foreign investments.

On the other hand, international drug trade has other serious repercussions apart from severely damaging the economy. It has effects on transnational problems like poverty, HIV, organized transnational crime, refugees and trafficking of women and children. Furthermore, the drug farming and manufacturing processes cause significant harm to the environment. Finally, drug trafficking between countries creates tensions in their bilateral relations.

UN secretary general Baan Ki moon recently called for the elimination of drug trafficking on June 26th, the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. In addition to fulfilling this as a part of the millennium, he stated that the end of the drug trade would unfurl the solutions for various other issues plaguing the world. Thus, the international community should regard the immediate and pervasive implications of this problem and design appropriate and comprehensive solutions for the same.

 
Contact Your Chair: 6thLegal@bruinmun.org