abstract

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is credited for promoting order in the world’s oceans. This article evaluates UNCLOS in the context of maritime boundaries in areas of hydrocarbon potential. It uses a dataset of 109 maritime boundaries and finds that the most frequent maritime boundary resolution methodology was not a negotiated delimitation agreement, but a solution only indirectly referenced by UNCLOS: a Joint Development Area agreement with prescriptive resource sharing. This study also discovered that disputes that involve states that have chosen to opt out of compulsory dispute resolution procedures are more likely to remain unresolved than otherwise.

摘要

联合国海洋法公约 (UNCLOS) 因促进世界海洋秩序而受到赞誉。本文在碳氢化合物潜力区域的海洋边界背景下评估《联合国海洋法公约》。它使用了 109 个海洋边界的数据集，发现最常见的海洋边界解决方法不是谈判划界协议，而是《联合国海洋法公约》仅间接引用的解决方案：具有规定性资源共享的联合开发区协议。该研究还发现，涉及选择退出强制争议解决程序的国家的争议比其他方式更有可能仍未解决。