The Judiciary and the Law of Maritime Delimitation: Setting the Stage

This chapter introduces the remainder of the book, including a brief overview of the individual chapters. It introduces the research focus of the project that resulted in this Volume and then briefly comments on the development of the law on the entitlement to and delimitation of the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone. As is explained, the relevant rules contained in multilateral conventions and customary international law provide the framework against which developments in the case law have to be assessed. The chapter also considers the availability of third party dispute settlement mechanisms to resolve disputes on the delimitation of the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone. The option of third party dispute settlement was considered to be relevant to maritime delimitation from the outset of the debate on substantive delimitation provisions. A further section concerns the question how the composition of judicial bodies may shape the law and whether criticism from beyond the bench may have had an impact on the development of the case law. If anything, this assessment shows how difficult it is to second-guess what transpires in the internal deliberations of the judiciary.