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The United Kingdom-France Continental Shelf Arbitration: Interpretive Decision of March 1978

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

David A. Colson*
Affiliation:
Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Oceans, International Environment, and Scientific Affairs, Department of State

Abstract

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Type
Notes and Comments
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1979

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References

1 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the French Republic Delimitation of the Continental Shelf Arbitration Agreement of 10 July 1975; Decision of 30 June 1977. At the time this note was written, the English text of the decision had not yet been published. It is now available in S. ODA, The International Law Of The Ocean Development. Basic Documents (Supp., October1978). The Arbitration Agreement of 10 July 1975 is presented in its entirety at thebeginning of the arbitral court's decision. [1975] Gr. Brit. TS No. 137 (Cmd. 6280). The court of arbitration consisted of Erik Castrén (president), Herbert Briggs, André Gros, Endre Ustor, and Sir Humphrey Waldock. The registrar was Lucius Caflisch, and the court sat in Geneva.

2 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the French Republic Delimitation of the Continental Shelf (Interpretation of the Decision of 30 June 1977); Decision of 14 March 1978 [hereinafter cited as 1978 Decision]. At the time this note was written, the English text of the decision had not yet been published. The members and location of the court were as in note 1, supra. Sir Humphrey Waldock appended a separate opinion to the decision, and Judge Briggs a dissenting opinion. See note 23, infra. For the French texts of the decisions, see Le Royaume-Uni De Grande Bhetagne Et D'irlande Du Nord Et La République Française Délimitation Du Plateau Continental; Décision Du 30 Juin 1977, and (same title plus) DÉCISION DU 14 MARS 1978, Paris, La Documentation Frangaise, 1977 and 1978, respectively.

3 For a general Report on the Decision of 30 June 1977, see Colson, The United Kingdom-France Continental Shelf Arbitration, 72 AJIL 95 (1978). For an interpretation of that decision, see Blecher, Equitable Delimitation of Continental Shelf, supra at 60.

4 A chart of the boundary area can be found in Colson, supra note 3, at 107.

5 Article 9(1) of the Arbitration Agreement provides: 1. When the proceedings before the Court have been completed, it shall transmit to the two Governments its decision on the question specified in Article 2 of the present Agreement. The decision shall include the drawing of the course of the boundary (or boundaries) on a chart. To this end, the Court shall be entitled to appoint a technical expert or experts to assist it in pReparing the chart.

6 In the Decision of 14 March 1978, the term “dispositif” is used to mean that portion of the Decision of 30 June 1977 which follows paragraph 255 and which is preceded by the words: “For these reasons, [t]he Court, unanimously, decides.” There follows a list of coordinates and reference to the boundary-line chart.

7 1978 Decision, United Kingdom “Application to the Court of Arbitration Pursuant to the Provisions of Article 10, paragraph 2, of the Arbitration Agreement of 10 July 1975,” para. 1.

8 Supra note 1, at para. 251.

9 1978 Decision, para. 3.

10 Id. at paras. 4-5.

11 Id. at para. 8.

12 Chorzów Factory case, [1927] PCIJ, ser. A, No. 13.

13 1978 Decision, para. 12.

14 Id. at para. 16.

15 Supra note 6.

16 1978 Decision, para. 28.

17 Id. at para. 29.

18 Id. at para. 34.

19 Id. at paras. 35-36.

20 Id. at para. 92.

21 Id. at para. 101.

22 Id. at para. 110.

23 Id. at paras. 111-12.