UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD FACULTY OF LAW

LAW OF THE SEA 2003-2004

Seminar 5: Continental Shelf; Delimitation

Continental Shelf

Reading:

Churchill & Lowe, ch 8.

*J. Woodliffe, ‘Decommissioning of Offshore Oil and Gas Installations’, 14 International Journal of Marine & Coastal Law (IJMCL) 101 (1999)

Further (optional) reading:-

Sir C. J. B. Hurst, ‘Whose is the bed of the sea?’, 4 BYIL 34-43 (1923-24).

D. N. Hutchinson, ‘The seaward limit to continental shelf jurisdiction in customary international law’, 56 BYIL 133-87 (1985).

B. Kwiatkowska and A. H. A. Soons, ‘Entitlement to maritime areas of rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own’, XXI Neth. YIL 139-181 (1990).

Z. J. Slouka, International Custom and the Continental Shelf (The Hague, Nijhoff), 1968.

Delimitation

Reading:

Churchill & Lowe, ch. 10.

and please read and be prepared to discuss the North Sea Continental Shelf cases, the Anglo-French Continental Shelf arbitration, and the Tunisia / Libya Continental Shelf case (references in Churchill & Lowe; alternative sources in International Law Reports, and on the ICJ website < http://www.icj-cij.org/ >.

Further (optional) reading

For reference: Charney & Alexander, International Maritime Boundaries.

N. Antunes, ‘The Pending Maritime Delimitation in the Cameroon v Nigeria case’, 15 IJMCL 163 (2000)

G. Blake (ed.), Maritime Boundaries and Ocean Resources (London, Croom Helm), 1987.

J. I. Charney, ‘Progress on international maritime boundary delimitation law', 88 AJIL 227-56 (1994).

M. D. Evans, ‘Delimitation and the common maritime boundary’, 64 BYIL 283-332 (1993).

L. de La Fayette, ‘The award in the Canada-France maritime boundary arbitration’, 8 IJMCL 77-103 (1993).

M. B. Feldman, ‘The Tunisia-Libya continental shelf case: geographic justice or judicial compromise?’, 77 AJIL 219-38 (1983).

R. Lagoni, ‘Interim measures pending maritime delimitation agreements’, 78 AJIL 345-68 (1984).

L E Moller, ‘The Outstanding Namibian Maritime Boundaries with Angola and South Africa’, 18 IJMCL 241 (2003)

J. Schneider. ‘The Gulf of Maine Case: the nature of an equitable result’, 79 AJIL 539-77 (1985).

T. Yoshifumi, ‘Proportionality in the Law of Maritime Delimitation’, 16 IJMCL 433 (2001)

For discussion:

1. In the light of the provisions of the 1958 CSC and the 1982 LOSC, are States obliged completely to remove disused installations from their continental shelves?

2. "Despite all the talk of equity, the equidistance line remains the fundamental instrument of maritime delimitation." Discuss.