The long-awaited decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over the compatibility of Directive 2005/35 with the international law of the sea was handed down on 3 June. It has been almost two years since the case was referred to the ECJ by the English High Court . Many of those waiting for the decision, however, will be highly disappointed, as the ECJ did not get to grips with the interesting questions of international law that were raised in the case. Rather the Court relied on principles of EC law to refuse to decide the questions concerning the compatibility…