General Overview on Recent Developments of Maritime Delimitation beyond 200 nautical miles: a recognized jurisdiction of international courts and tribunals

By its 17 March 2016 Judgment on Preliminary Objections in the case concerning Question of the Delimitation of the Continental Shelf between Nicaragua and Colombia beyond 200 nautical miles from the Nicaraguan Coast (Nicaragua v. Colombia) the International Court of Justice decided that it has jurisdiction to carry out the maritime delimitation of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles requested by Nicaragua. In its Judgment the Court stated that in the case of Nicaragua – as a State party to the Convention on the Law of the Sea - the only prerequisite, prior to seeking judicial delimitation of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, is having complied with its obligation under Article 76, paragraph 8 of said Convention, which states that “[i]nformation on the limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles [...] shall be submitted by the coastal State to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf […]”. In the same Judgment the Court reinforced the difference between the delineation of the outer continental shelf and the delimitation of the continental shelf thus establishing that the latter can be undertaken independent of a recommendation from the Commission. It also indicated on the one hand that the delineation of the outer limits of the continental shelf is governed by Article 76 (8) and consists of a procedure involving the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, and on the other hand, the delimitation of the continental shelf is governed by Article 83 of the Convention which allows States parties of said Convention to effect delimitations within and beyond 200 nautical miles by agreement or recourse to dispute resolution procedures.