Maritime Delimitation

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Contracting Sovereignty? Greece’s Experiment with the Contractual Allocation of Maritime Delimitation Risk in Offshore Lease Agreements

June 26, 2026

Aikaterini Florou

In February 2026, Greece signed offshore lease agreements with a Chevron-led consortium for the exploration of oil and gas south of Crete. A month later, the agreements were ratified by the Greek Parliament, thereby acquiring binding force in domestic law. Turkey and Libya were quick to condemn the contracts as unlawful and as encroaching upon the areas covered by their Memorandum of Understanding on Delimitation of the Maritime Jurisdiction Areas in the Mediterranean.

Some Preliminary Thoughts on Ghana’s Announced Recourse to 1982 LOSC Arbitration in the Maritime Boundary Dispute with Togo

March 4, 2026

Andreas Giorgallis

On 20 February 2026, Ghana, in a press release, formally notified the Government of Togo of its decision to submit their unresolved maritime boundary dispute to arbitration under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (henceforth: 1982 LOSC). After the lapse of almost a decade during which negotiations, joint technical committees and high-level…

A Commentary on the Land and Maritime Delimitation and Sovereignty over Islands (Gabon/Equatorial Guinea) (2025)

July 17, 2025

Andreas Giorgallis

The two African states of Equatorial Guinea and Gabon were the focus of recent international attention. And there is a good reason for that. On 19 May 2025, the International Court of Justice (henceforth: ICJ) delivered the merits of its long-awaited ruling in the case of Land and Maritime Delimitation and Sovereignty over Islands (Gabon/Equatorial Guinea) concerning their…

Mapping Disputes: The Role of Marine Spatial Planning in Contested Maritime Zones

May 12, 2025

Dimitris Panousos

In April 2025, Greece announced its first marine spatial planning (MSP), accompanied by an official map which divides the Ionian and the Aegean Seas into four different spatial units (See here for the official announcement in Greek – The map is further provided and explained below). While MSP in Greece had been under discussion for years, prompted…

The Al Yasat Marine Protected Area Dispute

September 25, 2024

Stephen Allen

1. Introduction The Al Yasat Marine Protected Area (MPA) has become the latest flashpoint in a wider quarrel concerning the maritime boundaries between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the Arabian Gulf. See the KSA’s note verbale (A/78/824) and the UAE’s response (A/78/886). The dispute can…

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A new twist in the South China Sea Arbitration: The Chinese Society of International Law’s Critical Study

May 25, 2018

Douglas Guilfoyle

On Monday 14 May 2018 the Chinese Journal of International Law, an Oxford University Press journal, published an extraordinary 500 page “Critical Study” of the Awards on jurisdiction and the merits in the South China Sea Arbitration between the Philippines and China. Readers will recall the case was brought under the UN Convention on the Law of…

Taking the party line on the South China Sea Arbitration

May 28, 2018

Douglas Guilfoyle

I recently posted here on the extraordinary 500-page “Critical Study” of the Awards in the South China Sea Arbitration published by the Chinese Society of International Law (CSIL) in Oxford University Press’ Chinese Journal of International Law. The piece drew a number of interesting comments, the most interesting from Professor Bing…

Extended Continental Shelf of the United States: A Landmark Announcement and Its Implications

January 18, 2024

Dr. Ekaterina Antsygina

In December 2023, The U.S. Department of State has released information about the outer limits of its extended continental shelf (ECS). The delineation of the ECS outer limits represents the largest offshore mapping effort ever undertaken by the United States, requiring two decades of extensive collection of marine geophysical data. The outcome of this project is the delineation…

A New Theory for Enforcing ICJ Judgments? The World Court’s 17 March 2016 Judgments on Preliminary Objections in Nicaragua v. Colombia

April 6, 2016

Diane Desierto

The International Court of Justice simultaneously issued two intriguing judgments on 17 March 2016, both involving applications filed by Nicaragua against Colombia, and both of which have some nexus to the Court’s 19 November 2012 Judgment in Territorial and Maritime Dispute (Nicaragua v. Colombia). To recall, the Court in its 2012 Judgment had affirmed Colombia’s sovereignty over…