On The Role Of The "Relevant Coast" In The Maritime Delimitation

The concept of the relevant coast was formed along with the development of the international legal system of maritime delimitation.Although it was formally present in the judgments of the International Court of Justice since the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982,but its role was earlier reflected in the method of "Fairness and consider all relevant circumstances".The relevant coast is closely related to coastal geography,which is an important factor in the consideration of the existence of "special circumstances" and "relevant circumstances".Coastal land length,coastal relations,coastal shapes and coastal trends which are referred in the coastal geography must be the coastal land length,coastal relations,coastal shapes and coastal trends of the relevant coast.The identification and determination of the relevant coast is a very critical part of the maritime delimitation,and the legal certainty of the relevant coast are even more important,namely,the criteria for identifying the relevant coast,the factors and the particular circumstances to be considered.This paper will analyze the roles of the relevant coasts in the maritime delimitation.First,the relevant coast provides the foundation of rights for the coastal States to advocate the relevant area,and it is necessary to determine the relevant coasts in order to determine the scope of the disputed parties,and the relevant coast must be closely linked to the delimitation area or the disputed area.Second,the relevant coast affects the determination of the baseline of demarcation which is different from the baseline of territorial sea.In the national practice,international judicial practice and international arbitration practice,the parties often do not adopt the baseline and base points declared by each other in the delimitation.Instead,they choose the base points that the two sides can accept,which must be on the relevant coast and conform to the characteristics of the relevant coast.Furthermore,the relevant coast influences the choice of demarcation method,which is mainly determined by the shape of the coast.As mentioned above,the geographical situation of the relevant coast affects the determination of the demarcation base point,while the baseline and the base point are two core elements to determine the equidistant line,if the equidistant method can not respond effectively to the relationship of the two parties,the bisection line method may be used to achieve fair results.Finally,the length of the relevant coastline plays an important role in the second and final stages of the maritime delimitation,which is mainly related to application of proportional method and disproportionate testing.Although the role of the relevant coast in the whole process of maritime delimitation can not be ignored,its identification and determination in international arbitration and international justice has shown a great deal of subjectivity.Whether decided by state or by the International Court of Justice and the tribunal,there is a lot of discretionary space,the decision on the relevant coast has a very strong flexibility.In addition,there is no uniform standard for the selection of maritime demarcation methods and the application of proportional methods,which remain outside the legal level.In this paper,a number of cases of maritime delimitation which are related to the relevant coast are chosen to study the method of identifying the relevant coast and the role of the relevant coast in the maritime delimitation,with a view to provide some suggestions to China's future maritime delimitation problem.