Between the “Standard Methodology” in Delimitation Dispute Settlement and the UNCLOS: Some 40th Anniversary Reflections

Abstract

1. By any standard, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has been an extraordinary instrument on ocean governance. The celebration in 2022 of the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the UNCLOS presented me the occasion to reflect on the settlement of maritime delimitation disputes and to review the relationship between settlement of such disputes and the UNCLOS. 2. Before the adoption of the UNCLOS, there had been some State practice on the settlement of disputes over the delimitation of the territorial sea as well as the continental shelf on the basis of the equidistance principle, as reflected in some cases as well as the Geneva Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone and the Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf. On the other hand, delimitation on the basis of equitable principles, as reflected in the North Sea Continental Shelf cases in the International Court of Justice (ICJ or the Court), also had a following. Of course, there was no delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) yet, as the EEZ was yet to debut in maritime space, until the idea was proposed and discussed in the context of consultations at the Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee,1 and then in the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (Diplomatic Conference).