Conflicto entre tratados. ¿Tempestad o calma en el Derecho del mar?

Abstract

The existence of conflicts between norms is an old topic of the General Theory of Law that also impacts the International Law. Indeed, the decentralized character of this regime and the absence of a universal legislator both cause and explain the existence of successive international treaties addressing the same matter but containing contradictory provisions, in other words, norms in conflict. This undesirable but undeniable situation derives from the impossible execution of the both conventional obligations; article 30 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties tries to resolve this problem. We find a significant example of this problem in the Law of the Sea, a sector in which the normative proliferation is an obvious and necessary fact, and a sector that does not escape the conventional conflicts. For these reasons, we believe to be necessary a study of the rules that regulate the application of successive treaties concerning the same matter and their application to the mare magnum of the Law of the Sea, all the more after the entry in force from 11 December 2001 of the New York Agreement of 1995 for the implementation of the provisions of the UN Convention relating to the conservation and management of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks.