Characterising a Dispute and the Scope of the LOSC Tribunals’ Jurisdiction Ratione Materiae

Characterising a dispute is a practice developed by certain Annex VII tribunals under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ( LOSC ) to determine the scope of their jurisdiction ratione materiae . Existing literature often views it as novel and questions its usefulness. This article examines the methods employed by the LOSC tribunals to characterise a dispute in a variety of jurisdictional contexts and analyses them by reference to a broader jurisprudence of international adjudication. In so doing, it challenges the prevailing view that characterisation is a novel practice unique to the LOSC jurisprudence and exposes the methodological weakness in the characterisation practices of the LOSC tribunals. It further discusses two methodological pathways to enhance the objectivity of characterising a dispute under Article 288(1).