BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

MARITIME DELIMITATION CASE LAWS FOR UPCOMING LITIGATIONS

Author: Commander M Yeadul Islam

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2012v33n3a3

ABSTRACT

The case laws from the decided cases, from the North Sea Continental Shelf case up to the Bangladesh v Myanmar case, have established a set of unified principal steps for maritime delimitation, relating to the Territorial Sea(TS), the Exclusive Economic Zone(EEZ), the Continental Shelf (CS) and a single maritime boundary.1This paper reviews existing agreements, identifies relevant coasts, looks at delimitation of the TS, EEZ and CS. The paper concludes that the developed case laws from the decided cases of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS)will have strong influence in future litigations, particularly in the Bangladesh v India case. This paper ends with a set of directions that the Court or Tribunal may consider. The Court and Tribunal need to consider whether the provisional equidistance line chosen needs to be modified to achieve an equitable solution, with regards to a number of special or relevant circumstances. Circumstances related to coastal geography, in particular length of the coastline, shape of the coastline and presence of islands, are the most relevant in this context. However, the Court may also have other circumstances such as historic title, socio-economic considerations and distribution of natural resources, security and conduct of the state parties. The Court may apply an ex-post factod is proportionality test to verify whether the delimitation line as modified is equitable. The Court may make any further necessary modifications. Finally, the Court and Tribunal will also need to specify starting and end points to the delimitation and will need to avoid encroaching on the rights of third states. These legal frameworks and case laws of the judgments of the ICJ and the ITLOS will provide milestones for future maritime delimitation.