Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T03:45:07.118Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Maritime Delimitation and Coastal Instability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2021

Snjólaug Árnadóttir
Affiliation:
Reykjavik University
Get access

Summary

UNCLOS articles 74 and 83 require that equitable solutions are achieved on the basis of international law. This entails an obligation to consider all relevant circumstances. Courts and tribunals traditionally delimit bilateral boundaries by delimiting an equidistance line and only adjust it by reference to relevant circumstances. Such circumstances primarily relate to coastal geography and the time of delimitation. However, judicial decisions can consider coastal instability, and complicated scientific evidence. This has allowed courts and tribunals to assess seasonal changes to ice sheets and access to fish stocks; the status of coastal features; and feasibility of potential base points. Indeed, foreseeable changes to coastal geography can affect the delimitation process to produce boundaries that are less dependent on particularly unstable coastal features. This can strengthen the link between fluctuating maritime limits and permanent boundaries and prevent invocation of the rebus sic stantibus principle. Foreseeable changes to coastal geography can affect the choice of base points or delimitation methods and lead to an adjustment of provisional boundaries.

Type
Chapter
Information
Climate Change and Maritime Boundaries
Legal Consequences of Sea Level Rise
, pp. 83 - 131
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×