This chapter examines whether the unbalanced treatment of private rights on land and at sea is justified by reasons of a legal or practical nature: are the interests of non-state actors entirely irrelevant to the international law of the sea? Are land and maritime delimitation too different to be reconciled? Are offshore private rights less significant than land rights? The chapter concludes that none of those reasons can satisfactorily justify the ineffective protection which private rights receive in the context of maritime delimitation. This underlines the need for an equilibrium in the treatment of private interests on land and at sea.