Enrica Lexie Incident Award and its Implication

On 21 May 2020, the Arbitral Tribunal under Annex VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in respect of the Enrica Lexie Incident adopted its Award. It was notified to the Parties on 9 June 2020. On 2 July 2020, the Arbitral Tribunal published the operative part(dispositif) of the Award on the PCA Case Repository. According to Italy, the dispute arises from an incident that occurred on 15 February 2012 approximately 20.5 nautical miles off the coast of India involving the “Enrica Lexie”, an oil tanker flying the Italian flag, and India’s subsequent exercise of criminal jurisdiction over the incident and over two Italian marines from the Italian Navy. According to India, the incident in question concerns the killing of two Indian fishermen on board an Indian vessel named the “St. Antony”, and India’s subsequent exercise of jurisdiction. It is alleged that the two Italian marines aboard the “Enrica Lexie” killed the fishermen. Author would like to explaine that there is a sligltly different noteworthy point on this Case. The point is that the Arbitral Tribunal placed much emphasis on the statements of the individuals involved in the case, when the Arbitral Tribunal deal with the fact findinding and jurisprudence. This paper aims to focus on how the Arbitral Tribunal handles the testimony of the individuals involved in this case in the process of deleberating the case of Enrica Lexie Incident.