Settling of the maritime boundaries of the United States: Cost of settlement and the benefits of legal certainty

Abstract

Abstract 1 The United States has the largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world by virtue of its long coastlines and multiple dependencies in the Caribbean and the Pacific Oceans. As a result it shares 27 maritime boundaries with 20 different states and dependencies. This paper analyzes how the United States settled 10 contested maritime boundaries between 1977 and until 1997, but has since then left 17 unresolved maritime boundaries. It advances the argument that in this area of relatively low salience for the United States' foreign policy, political and economic transaction costs are key variables in explaining the pattern of settlement.