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53 Ocean Dev. & Int'l L. 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/ocdev53 and id is 1 raw text is: OCEAN DEVELOPMENT & INTERNATIONAL LAW 2022, VOL. 53, NO. 1, 1-18 ( Taylor & Francis https://doi.org/10.1080/00908320.2022.2032501 Taylor & Francis Group UNCLOS and Maritime Boundary Disputes in Areas of Hydrocarbon Potential: Oil Under Troubled Waters? Vivek Chandraa and John R. Morssb aKerogen Consultants, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; bDeakin Law School, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is Received 9 August 2021 credited for promoting order in the world's oceans. This article evalu- Accepted 18 January 2022 ates UNCLOS in the context of maritime boundaries in areas of hydrocarbon potential. It uses a dataset of 109 maritime boundaries KEYWORDS and finds that the most frequent maritime boundary resolution Law of the sea; dispute methodology was not a negotiated delimitation agreement, but a Development Area (JDA); solution only indirectly referenced by UNCLOS: a Joint Development hydrocarbon resources; Area agreement with prescriptive resource sharing. This study also maritime borders 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. Introduction It has now been 40 years since the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS or the Convention) opened for signature in 1982, and more than 25 years since the conclusion of its 1994 Implementing Agreement.' The Convention is often praised for its attempts to create the governing, even constitutional, law for the sea. By contrast, UNCLOS's critics point out that although UNCLOS was a political bargain that aspired to be universal, it is undoubtedly an imperfect and incomplete instrument.2 The achievements of UNCLOS are much heralded, but its shortcomings are neither trivial nor inconsequential. The absence of clear guidance for delimitation of maritime zones, especially when the overlapping claim areas have hydrocarbon resources, has, unsurprisingly, encouraged many disputes to remain unresolved, and disputing states to CONTACT Dr. Vivek Chandra vchandra@natgas.info Kerogen Consultants, Suite 656, 585 Little Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia. 1 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, adopted 10 December 1982, entered into force 16 November 1994, 1833 UNTS 396 (UNCLOS). 2 P. Prows, Tough Love: The Dramatic Birth and Looming Demise of UNCLOS Property Law (and What Is to Be Done About It) (2007) 42 Texas International Law Journal 241, 245; See also A. Boyle, Dispute Settlement and the Law of the Sea Convention: Problems of Fragmentation and Jurisdiction (1997) 46 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 37; R. Churchill, The Persisting Problem of Non-compliance with the Law of the Sea Convention: Disorder in the Oceans (2012) 27 International Journal of Marine & Coastal Law 813; D. Freestone, The Law of the Sea Convention at 30: Successes, Challenges and New Agendas (2012) 27 International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 675; V. Lowe, Was it Worth the Effort? (2012) 27 International Journal of Marine & Coastal Law 875; T. Koh, The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea: What Was Accomplished? (1983) 46 Law and Contemporary Problems 5. C 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC