A Legal Appraisal of the Interplay between the Obligations to Publish/Deposit Charts and Lists of Geographical Coordinates and Unilateral Maritime Claims

Abstract

According to Articles 16, 75 and 84 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC), States Parties are under a triple obligation to draw, publish and deposit with the UN Secretary-General charts and/or lists of geographical coordinates of points concerning straight baselines, the outer limits of their maritime zones and delimited maritime boundaries. Interestingly, several States Parties have chosen to advance their maritime claims through the exercise of these duties. The expression of claims through these obligations prior to the reaching of maritime boundary delimitation could be accepted, if the claims are in compliance with the LOSC and the submission is merely of a declaratory nature seeking to ‘formalise’ a State Party’s claims, with the caveat that such assertions are subject to the designation of a definitive boundary, given that there is no such thing as ‘unilateral’ delimitation in international law.