Far out in the South Atlantic, where a small community of islanders has lived under British rule for generations while Argentina has never let go of its claim, an old quarrel over sovereignty has reached the seabed. Argentina has asked an international maritime court in Hamburg to halt drilling at the Sea Lion oilfield until a separate arbitration settles the matter, arguing that a contested sea cannot be carved up by one side alone. Britain answers that the court has no business ruling on who owns the islands, and that the drilling is years from producing a single barrel. The judges will deci
Argentina tells UN tribunal Britain cannot treat Falklands waters as its own 'Dominium maris Britannici'
"We are not in the 17th century," Argentina's lawyer told the tribunal
Mark
Why does a case about drilling schedules get framed around a 17th-century doctrine?
Mimi
Because Argentina wants the judges to see the drilling as a unilateral act in disputed waters. Kohen's line was that a sovereignty dispute doesn't let either side treat the sea as its own.
Luke
Worth noting that's advocacy. The tribunal hasn't said anything yet about whether the waters are disputed in a way that restricts drilling.
Mark
And Britain's answer?
Mimi
Two things. Itlos can't rule on sovereignty, and there's no urgency, since extraction wouldn't start until 2028.
Luke
Note the distinction, though. Drilling is due to start in March; extraction is the 2028 date. Britain says arbitration will conclude before then. That's the UK's expectation, not a guarantee.
Mark
What about the 1976 UN call Kohen cited?
Mimi
He called it the elephant in the room. It asked both sides to avoid unilateral changes while sovereignty is unsettled.
Luke
And Wordsworth says it isn't legally binding. That's a real disagreement, and the reporting doesn't tell us how the judges lean.
Mark
Does Milei's reaction matter to the legal question?
Mimi
Not to the law, but it shows how political this is at home. He called reclaiming the islands a national cause.
Luke
Right, and the claim that drilling could double the islands' GDP is reported without a named source for the calculation. We'll know more on 28 November, when the ruling is due.
Il Polso
- Argentina has asked the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to order Britain to suspend drilling at Sea Lion, about 130 miles north of the Falklands.
- The UK insists the tribunal lacks jurisdiction over sovereignty, calls the 1976 UN resolution non-binding, and warns that halting drilling would kill the project.
- Argentina frames the drilling as irreparable damage to its resource rights, while Britain says oil will not flow until 2028, so there is no urgency.
- Political pressure is intense in Buenos Aires, where President Milei calls the Falklands a national cause and his legal team is celebrated in Hamburg.
- The tribunal's ruling on 28 November will determine whether drilling proceeds while the sovereignty dispute remains unresolved.
Far out in the South Atlantic, where a small community of islanders has lived under British rule for generations while Argentina has never let go of its claim, an old quarrel over sovereignty has reached the seabed. Argentina has asked an international maritime court in Hamburg to halt drilling at the Sea Lion oilfield until a separate arbitration settles the matter, arguing that a contested sea cannot be carved up by one side alone. Britain answers that the court has no business ruling on who owns the islands, and that the drilling is years from producing a single barrel. The judges will decide on 28 November, and their answer will show whether the law of the sea can hold steady where history and sovereignty have never been reconciled.
In a hearing room in Hamburg, Argentina's counsel Marcelo Kohen told the judges of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea that Britain should not behave like a 17th-century colonial power, mocking the old idea that the British crown holds sovereignty over broad stretches of ocean. The case is narrower than the rhetoric. Argentina wants an order forcing Britain to suspend drilling at the Sea Lion oilfield, about 130 miles north of the Falklands, while a further arbitration plays out. Drilling is due to begin next March and could double the islands' GDP.
Kohen argued that a sovereignty dispute over the islands does not turn the surrounding sea into a lawless space where one party may exploit natural resources as it pleases. He pointed to a 1976 UN call for both sides to avoid unilateral decisions that would change the situation, and said exploiting the hydrocarbons would deprive Argentina of rights to those resources. In closing, Mario Oyarzábal rejected the claim that Argentina was litigating sovereignty, saying the real question is whether the UK may authorise new drilling while the underlying dispute is unresolved.
Britain's case, put by Attorney General Ellie Reeves and then Sam Wordsworth KC, was that Argentina was using the request to advance its sovereignty ambitions, that halting drilling would bring disastrous consequences for islanders and companies, and that the convention does not oblige states to refrain from aggravating a dispute. The UN resolution is not binding, and extraction is years away.
The politics sit close behind the law. Javier Milei celebrated the legal team and has called reclaiming the islands a national cause, a memory shaped by the 1982 invasion and the 74-day war that followed. The judges will rule on 28 November.
In a hearing room in Hamburg, on the second day of proceedings before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Argentina's counsel Marcelo Kohen told the judges that Britain should not be allowed to behave like a 17th-century colonial power. The target of his mockery was a Latin phrase, Dominium maris Britannici, the old notion that the British crown holds sovereignty over broad stretches of ocean. Britain, he suggested, appeared to believe in it when it came to the waters around the Falkland Islands.
The case is narrower than the rhetoric. Argentina has asked the tribunal, known as Itlos, for an order that would force Britain to suspend oil drilling in the North Basin of the Falklands while a further arbitration plays out. The Sea Lion oilfield sits about 130 miles north of the islands, a British overseas territory whose sovereignty Argentina has long claimed. Drilling is due to begin in March next year and could double the islands' GDP.
Kohen argued that a dispute over sovereignty over the archipelago of 700 islands, known in Argentina as the Malvinas, does not turn the surrounding sea into a legal black hole in which the UK may do as it wishes with natural resources. "We are not in the 17th century," he said, adding that this is an era in which the last vestiges of colonialism should be ended. Switching from French to English, he said Britain's submissions had ignored the "elephant in the room," or the "whale in the bathtub": the UN treats the Falklands as a non-self-governing territory, and in 1976 it called on both sides to refrain from unilateral decisions that would change the situation before the sovereignty dispute is settled. Exploiting the hydrocarbons, he said, would lift the islands to just below Monaco among the wealthiest places while depriving Argentina of its rights to those resources. Argentina's team called suspension urgent because of what it described as irreparable damage to those rights.
In closing to the panel of 20 judges, Mario Oyarzábal, a legal adviser in Argentina's foreign ministry, rejected the British claim that Argentina was using the case to litigate sovereignty. The question, he said, is whether, while the underlying dispute is unresolved, the UK may unilaterally authorise or carry out new drilling in the disputed maritime area.
Britain's case was put the day before by Ellie Reeves, the attorney general for England and Wales. She told the judges that Argentina was using the suspension request to advance its sovereignty ambitions, and that halting drilling would kill the Sea Lion project, with "disastrous consequences" for Falkland Islanders and the companies involved. The UK maintains that the tribunal, which rules on maritime matters, has no jurisdiction over sovereignty.
Sam Wordsworth KC, responding for the UK, said nothing in the convention on the law of the sea, which gives Itlos its jurisdiction, obliges a state not to "aggravate" a sovereignty dispute, and that the UN resolution Kohen invoked is not legally binding. The UK also says there is no urgency: oil extraction would not happen until 2028, and an Itlos arbitration panel would reach a conclusion on Argentina's wider claim of breached rights before then.
The politics sit close behind the law. Argentina's president, Javier Milei, reportedly shared a photograph of the legal team in Hamburg with his cabinet on Tuesday, calling it "tremendous" and saying, "we are working on the Falklands issue like no one else in history." In his recent UN General Assembly speech he called reclaiming the islands a "national cause." Argentina invaded in 1982 on the orders of the dictator Gen Leopoldo Galtieri; the 74-day war ended with Argentine surrender and cost the lives of 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel and three Falkland Islanders.
Itlos is expected to rule on Argentina's request on 28 November, which will determine whether drilling can go ahead while the sovereignty dispute remains unresolved.
Citazioni salienti
The fact that the parties dispute sovereignty does not turn the areas surrounding the Malvinas into some kind of Dominium maris Britannici.— Marcelo Kohen, counsel for Argentina
Suspending the drilling would kill the Sea Lion project, with disastrous consequences for the Falkland Islanders and the companies involved.— Ellie Reeves, attorney general for England and Wales (paraphrased)
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