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France-United Kingdom: Arbitration on the Delimitation of the Continental Shelf*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2017

Abstract

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Type
Judicial and Similar Proceedings
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1979

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Footnotes

*

[Reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Britannic Majesty's Stationery Office from Command Paper 7438, March 1979.

[The Decision of June 30, 1977, appears at I.L.M. page 399. The Decision of March 14, 1978, appears at page 462, and the map appears at page 494. Judge Waldock's separate opinion and Judge Briggs' dissenting opinion, both appended to the second decision, have not been reproduced.]

References

page 398 note 1 (Cmnd 6280)

page 399 note 1 Mr. Noël Museux, Legal Counsellor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was appointed Deputy-Agent, commencing on 23 May 1977.

page 401 note 1 This translation, and all those which follow, are made by the Registry.

page 408 note 1 In general, English terminology will be used for geographical features in the English text of the award, and French terminology in the French text.

page 413 note 1 The reservations to this Article being pertinent in the present case, the original text is reproduced below:

page 413 note 1 English text reproduced from Multilateral Treaties in respect of which the Secretary-General Performs Depositary Functions. List of Signatures, Ratifications, Accessions, etc. as of 31 December 1976 (ST/LEG/SER.D/10), New York, 1977, p. 518.

“Article 6 (alineas 1 et 2):

Le Gouvernement de la République française n'acceptera pas que lui soit opposée, sans un accord exprès, une délimitation entre des plateaux contincntaux appliquant le principe de l'équidistance:

Si celle-ci est calculée à partir de lignes de base institutes postérieurement au 29 avril 1958;

Si elle est prolongee au-dela de l'isobathe de 200 metres de profondeur;

Si elle se situe dans zones où il considére qu'il existe des ‘circonstances spéciales’, au sens des ahnèas 1 et 2 de l'article 6, à savoir: le golfe de Gascogne, la baie de Granville et les espaces maritimes du Pas-de-Calais et de la mer du Nord au large des côtes françaises”

(French Memorial, vol. II, Annexe III, p. 39).

page 414 note 1 Multilateral Treaties in respect of which the Secretary-General Performs Depositary Functions, op. cit., p. 520.

page 414 note 1 United Kingdom Memorial, Appendices A(9), A(10), A(14), A(15), A(19), A(20), A(25), A(26).

page 416 note 1 Multilateral Conventions in respect of which the Secretary-General Performs Depositary Functions, op.cit., pp. 504-505, n.6.

page 416 note 2 Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, Official Records, vol. V, p. 151 (Document A/CONF. 62/WP.8/Rev. 1/PART II).

page 416 note 3 Ibid.,p. 125.

page 424 note 1 The text of the two paragraphs appears in paragraph 66 above.

page 426 note 1 The texts reverse the order of the words “median” and “equidistant”; but it is the “equidistant” line which is appropriate to “adjacent” States and the “median” line to “opposite States”. See Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, Official Records, vol. V (Document A/CONF. 62/WP. 8/Rev. 1/Part II).

page 429 note 1 A “simplified” median line is one in which, in order to make the line less complicated, the number of its turning points is reduced by using straight lines between the principal poults. When this is done, an advantage to one State in one area is usually compensated by a roughly equivalent advantage to the other State in another area.

page 430 note * Not printed. Although the Court of Arbitration included two maps, on page 117a and 136a of the Decision it handed down, one map containing all the relevant information is reproduced on page 205 below.

page 435 note * Not printed. See map on page 205 and note on page 66.

page 445 note 1 Not printed. See map on page 205 and note on page 66.

page 447 note 1 This expression was a neologism, the existing designation “Mer d'Iroise” referring to a different sea area to the south and south-east of Ushant.

page 457 note 1 For an English translation, see the Court's Decision, paragraph 33. In that translation, the word “exprès” is translated as “specific”; and the phrase “une délimitation entre des plateaux continentaux” is mistranslated as “any boundary of the continental shelf”. I can find no evidence that either Party to this Arbitration relied on the English translation set forth by the Court; both Parties quoted the French text in the original. In this Declaration, all quotations are in the original.

page 458 note 1 See also United Kingdom Reply, 1977, paragraphs 23 and 28, and United Kingdom Memorial, 1976, paragraph 181.

page 458 note 2 See above for quotation from paragraph 56 of the French Counter-Memorial.

page 464 note 1 This translation, and all those which follow, were made by the Registry.

page 466 note (1) The lettering corresponds to that used on Appendices B.l—B.3. The basepoints lettered J and K in effect ‘mask’ the point referred to as Island of Lihou in the Technical Report.

page 466 note (2) For the deliniination of a 3-mile or 6-mile belt various basepoints additional to those listed in Appendix A.4 also come into play.

page 467 note (1) Cf. Hodgson and Cooper, pp. 372-376.

page 468 note * Middle one of three rocks lying within 300 metres of one another.

page 471 note 1 The French text reads:

“1. Les deux Gouvernements sont convenus d'accepter comme définitive et obligatoire pour eux-mêmes la décision du Tribunal relative à la question énoncée à I'article 2 du present compromis.

2. Chaque Partie peut, dans les trois mois suivant la décision prise, déférer au Tribunal toute contestation entre les Parties en ce qui conceme l'interprétation et la portée de la décision.”

page 479 note 1 Inadvertently stated in the reverse manner in the text of the Expert's Report and in the Decision.