TR: The question posed by megan was simple:
does the action taken by Russia legally constitute an act of war. - Under NATO Charter, Article 5 it does not meet the requirement, which is of an armed attack;
- Under UNCLOS, Article 113, it is up to the legislation of the states concerned to determine the penalty for interference with undersea cables, power or communications etc;
- The question wasn't do I agree that it is suitably sanctioned under law as a deliberate act of sabotage against a countries infrastructure? Had that been the case I would have suggested that the remedies that exist are inadequate, (even if the action occurs within territorial waters). Russia and China have played a game of disruption that is inadequately sanctioned, but does not under any current legislation that I am aware of, rise to the standard of a casus belli. It may not be satisfying, it may not be tidy, it may not even be logical on face value, but that is the law.
Brassing up some ship and pumping it full of holes curiously enough doesn't necessarily meet the standard of an act of war. Piracy is criminal, not an act of war. An act that would otherwise be piracy but taken by a state would be an act of aggression, a hostile act and could be considered a casus belli, it would violate international law, but apparently this decade no one cares too much about that.
Finland and Estonia have every right to intern the vessel, hold the crew for investigation and prosecution, and to sell the seized asset used in a crime along with its cargo while demanding restitution from the flag state. Not sure the ship is worth much, the cargo has some limited value, and the crew will be better housed and fed in Finland than Russia anyway. UNCLOS does not speak adequately to deliberate sabotage by a state actor against another, but then, they too have some cables, comms lines etc, murmansk, Sea of Okhotsk seem like great locations to go trawling with anchors. Same in the SCS, China has some comms underwater to their beloved reefs, would be a shame to go dark. Most is satcom, some RF into the region would be handy. Play reruns of I Love Lucy.
The wording "armed attack" is itself undefined.
https://www.shs-conferences.org/arti...2019_01022.pdf
If an action were taken with a piece of timber is that an armed attack ? Does it become an armed attack if the piece of timber is now described as a club ? When does an anchor become a grappling hook ?
Whilst I personally do not consider that these many incidents constitute armed attacks, nonetheless they are worthy of responses so as to dissuade Russia/Putin/etc from undertaking further actions. Those responses do not need to be precisely symmetrical, indeed in my opinion it would be helpful if there were a bit of somewhat random asymmetry so as to make Russia/Putin think very carefully before doing anything again. Or any helpers in China, NORK, etc.
(And this should be entirely separate from giving Ukraine as much as possible by way of support. That should continue/increase as a given.)