The informal single negotiating text (committee ii): A geographical perspective

Abstract

Abstract From the second session of the Third United Nations Law of the Sea Conference came single‐text documents from the chairmen of each of the three main committees plus an “informative paper”; on the settlement of disputes. The Committee II Working Paper, which considered the traditional law of the sea issues, contains many geographical implications; among those analyzed in this paper are: (1) natural baselines and zonal measurements delimited therefrom; (2) artificial baselines as supplements to, or replacements of, natural baselines; (3) the nature of linear representation on maps and charts, their description and methods of giving publicity thereto; (4) boundary delimitation between states; and (5) the nature and definition of the continental shelf margin. Some of the language in the Negotiating Test is too imprecise‐for example, the delimitation of boundaries between states and the limit of the continental shelf—and will require additional negotiation. Although the articles may prove to be very general, a great effort should be made to create objective and definitive criteria so as to reduce potential conflict to a minimum.