SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Legal scholars who have researched delimitation of maritime boundaries have generally restricted their inquiry to the stage leading to the drawing of the line and its incorporation into a treaty or judicial decision. This approach, however, cannot account for the fact that, sometimes, treaties and decisions will not be applied and may be contested by one or both parties to the boundary dispute. This article starts an inquiry into maritime boundaries after delimitation, examining the rules that may apply and drawing conclusions not only on the need to develop further rules addressing consequent stages, but also to probably think again the existing rules concerning the previous stages.