International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume VI, Issue XI, November 2022|ISSN 2454-6186
Bangladesh V Myanmar Maritime: Boundary Delimitation Case
Iffat Ara Haider
Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP), Department of Law, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Abstract: This article describes technical difficulties of Bangladesh and Myanmar’s maritime boundary dispute (the “Bay of Bengal case”). This was the first maritime delimitation case that the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) resolved. A maritime border for the seabed and subsoil of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the extended continental shelf (ECS) was decided by international adjudication for the first time in 2012. It was also the first time detailed technical quantification of seabed areas in the EEZ and ECS was needed for an international forum. After reviewing the ITLOS’s delimitation principles, this article evaluates St. Martin’s Island’s legal status and delimitation effect. The ITLOS concluded that the EEZ and continental shelf legal regimes should not be distinguished in the present instance, but a different approach is proposed for future cases. This article discuss about how to make an equitable boundary and indicates a model for adjusting provisional equidistance lines to accommodate the complicated geophysical rules for the outer limits of the ECS set by the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC).
Key words: Bay of Bengal, sea, delimitation, ITLOS, UNCLOS, etc.
Delimitation of the maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal (Bangladesh/Myanmar), ITLOS Reports 2012, Case no.16
I. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Since Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, it has been in negotiation with Myanmar over their maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal. International law establishes the international maritime boundary. But the process by which these boundaries are determined in concrete situations will always have a sui generis character. States aren’t required to reach a settlement through simply legal means. Determining a maritime boundary should include numerous factors. Bilateral agreement or court settlement can delimit a maritime boundary. The Hamburg-based Law of the Sea Tribunal (ITLOS) delivered a historic judgment on Bangladesh/maritime Myanmar’s boundary on March 14, 2012 (Bangladesh and Rosen, 2013). Tribunal was asked to delimit three maritime boundaries between Bangladesh and Myanmar: the territorial sea boundary, the single maritime boundary between the EEZ and continental shelves of the two states, and the continental shelf boundary beyond 200 nautical miles from their baselines. This Bangladesh-Myanmar dispute was the ITLOS’s first judgment has marked a distinctive and definitive legal achievement for Bangladesh.