WHAT PRINCIPLES GOVERN THE DELIMITATION OF MARITIME BOUNDARIES?
Once the difficult and complex issues identified above are addressed and resolved, it then becomes appropriate to determine how the maritime boundaries in a region should be drawn. The 1958 Convention on the Continental Shelf[xlv] and the Convention on the Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone[xlvi] adopted the “equidistance principle” as the method for resolving competing claims to surrounding waters. Under this principle, a disputed area is divided along a line equidistant between the countries involved. But the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention carefully avoids referring to “equidistance” as the proper approach, and instead provides in Articles 74(1) and 83(1) a carefully crafted formula that gives only subtle hints regarding how disputes should be resolved: The delimitation of the exclusive economic zone [and continental shelf] between States with opposite or adjacent coasts shall be effected by agreement on the basis of international law, as referred to in Article 38 of the Statute of
Once the difficult and complex issues identified above are addressed and resolved, it then becomes appropriate to determine how the maritime boundaries in a region should be drawn. The 1958 Convention on the Continental Shelf[xlv] and the Convention on the Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone[xlvi] adopted the “equidistance principle” as the method for resolving competing claims to surrounding waters. Under this principle, a disputed area is divided along a line equidistant between the countries involved. But the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention carefully avoids referring to “equidistance” as the proper approach, and instead provides in Articles 74(1) and 83(1) a carefully crafted formula that gives only subtle hints regarding how disputes should be resolved: The delimitation of the exclusive economic zone [and continental shelf] between States with opposite or adjacent coasts shall be effected by agreement on the basis of international law, as referred to in Article 38 of the Statute of
