Boundary and Maritime Issues

• Author: Carl Dundas
• Pages: 203-227

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Border and Maritime Issues

Border and Maritime Issues

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7Carl Dundas

Introduction

The Award of the Arbitral Tribunal1 on 11 April 2006 at the Hague in an

arbitration between Barbados and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago

concerning the delimitation of a single maritime boundary between the

exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and the continental shelves appertaining to

Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, marked the latest attempt at boundary-

making in CARICOM, and indeed in the Caribbean region. Maritime

boundary-making in CARICOM pre-dated that integration movement by

many decades, for example, the 1893 Saint John-Mariscal Treaty between

United Kingdom (British Honduras/Belize) and Mexico, which dealt with

both land and sea borders in the area of the tip of Yucatan Peninsula and the

cays (Ambergris), while the long list of negotiated agreements wider

Caribbean region listed in note 2 below ended with the United Kingdom

(Cayman Islands) and Honduras Treaty of 2002.2 Sometimes disputed land

borders spill over into maritime border delimitation, as the experience with

Belize and Guyana has shown.

Historical Background

The Saint John-Mariscal Treaty dealt with land and territorial waters

boundaries between the United Kingdom (on behalf of British Honduras,

now Belize) and Mexico. A treaty between Venezuela and the United Kingdom

(with respect to Trinidad) relating to the Gulf of Paria, was signed at Caracas

204 Interview, Border and Maritime Issues in CARICOM

on February 1942. The 1942 Treaty was widely believed to have been

concluded to protect potential hydrocarbon deposits occurring outside the

territorial sea limit of the Parties. That Treaty set the stage for the later

development of the continental shelf concept, which has expanded to claim a

large percentage of the seabed and subsoil for coastal States’ jurisdiction.

The maritime issues which impact on the borders of States’ jurisdiction

were defined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which

entered into force in 1994. That Convention (UNCLOS) defines a number of

zones which coastal States can claim in proper cases pursuant to its provisions.

The UNCLOS defined the maximum limits of claims that coastal States

might make and the nature and status of rights that may be exercised in each

zone. The zones that might be claimed and delimited under international

boundary law in proper cases are internal waters, archipelagic waters,

territorial sea, exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the continental shelf and the

extended (outer) continental shelf.

Issues Impacting on Maritime Boundary-Making

The UNCLOS clarified and significantly expanded the law relating to

maritime borders. Since its entry into force in 1994, the interpretation and

application of the provisions of UNCLOS relating to border settlement has

thrown up issues, the most important of which are discussed herein in the

context of Caribbean States. These issues include (1) overlapping claims, (2)

presence or potential of hydrocarbons in the relevant delimitation area, (3)

impact of fisheries, (4) commercial (shipping) considerations, and (5)

environment considerations. Many border issues have frequently led to

controversies and disputes and so, disputes resolution mechanisms must be

discussed, even briefly, in this paper.

Overlapping Claims

a) The absence of overlapping claims enables coastal States to define

their maritime borders (except the outer continental shelf) in

accordance with international boundary law, without reference to

any other State or international authority. These borders may include

internal waters, archipelagic waters, territorial sea, the EEZ and the

continental shelf. However, with respect to the outer continental

shelf, the borders require confirmation by the UN Commission on