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Geology
The equidistance rule which applies to the territorial sea under Article 15 of the
Convention is subject to exceptions where it is necessary by reason of historic title
or special circumstances. The International Court of Justice confirmed in the
NicaraguaHonduras case that such special circumstances may include
geomorphological problems.52
Moreover, the International Court of Justice has stated that one of the factors
which should be considered in the negotiation process of delimiting the continental
shelf between states is the physical and geological structure, and natural resources,
of the continental shelf areas involved.53 However, the role of geology has
increasingly been of limited importance in determining equitable solutions in
delimiting the continental shelf.
In the North Sea Continental Shelf cases, the International Court of Justice declared
that boundary delimitation should leave each state as large an area as possible of the
shelf constituting a natural prolongation of its land territory into the sea without
encroaching on similar prolongation of the other state, although this is generally not
relevant where states are less than 400 nautical miles apart. This was recognised in
the Libya v Malta case, where the International Court of Justice stated that whatever
the geological characteristics of the corresponding seabed and subsoil, there is no
reason to ascribe any role to geological or geophysical factors within that distance
either in verifying the legal title of the states concerned or in proceeding to
delimitation as between their claims. It went on to clarify that where verification of
the validity of title is concerned, since, at least insofar as those areas are situated at
a distance of under 200 miles from the coasts in question, title depends solely on the
distance from the coasts of the claimant States of any areas of sea-bed claimed by way
of continental shelf, and the geological or geomorphological characteristics of those
areas are completely immaterial.54
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