The quest for global equity in maritime law

With a view to preparing the ground for rules and principles on maritime boundary delimitation, it is essential to consider the global distributive effects of the new law of the sea, particularly those of the continental shelf and the EEZ. Global, ‘macro-economic’ distributive effects and the changes brought about by these concepts may be relevant in the succeeding process of ‘micro-economic’ maritime boundary delimitation between states. Both levels operate with elusive notions of equity, and it is yet unclear how they interrelate. A brief study of distributive effects in law and the economics of the enclosure of the seas is therefore necessary to define the scope of equity in the context of maritime boundary delimitation. It prepares the ground for the clarification of the relationship of what may be called global equity in the law of the sea and the use of equity in maritime boundary delimitation in subsequent chapters of this book.

The history of the enclosure movement reveals that the EEZ and the Area became an important part of the movement for a new international economic order (NIEO) from the 1970s to the 1980s. While the legal concept of the shelf emerged from policies put forth by industrial and colonial powers, the subsequent developments of the EEZ and the Area – under the concept of common heritage – were largely promoted by developing countries (LDCs) under the flag of equity, with the hope of achieving fundamental changes in the allocation of income, wealth and resources. In the 1970s, UNCLOS III became a central operation in the pursuit of power sharing and of distributive justice or global equity: