Combating Transnational Crime at Sea: The Unfinished Integration Between UNTOC and UNCLOS

Within the context of international maritime safety and security, this paper examines the systemic legal relationship between the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The study seeks to determine the extent to which these two treaty regimes interact and complement each other. Adopting a systemic approach to international law, the analysis posits that no single legal regime should entirely exclude the application of another. Following a brief introduction (section 1), the paper first explores the UNTOC regime, analysing its openness to international rules from other legal frameworks, particularly the law of the sea (section 2). It then examines the law of the sea, with a focus on UNCLOS as its principal legal instrument (section 3). The discussion subsequently centres on the interaction between specific provisions of UNTOC and UNCLOS, evaluating whether they mutually reinforce or undermine each other (section 4). The paper concludes with reflections on the future of combating transnational organised crime at sea, viewed through the lens of the interaction between the UNTOC and UNCLOS regimes (section 5).