Maritime Delimitation

And in other news . . . the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) also had a first of its own this past Wednesday. ITLOS delivered judgment in its first maritime delimitation case – Dispute concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal (Bangladesh/Myanmar) (see press release here and judgment here). The case is part of a pair of maritime delimitation cases involving Bangladesh and its neighbours. The other case is one between Bangladesh and India, which has been submitted to arbitration under Annex VII of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. We will have a substantive comment on the decision in the Bangladesh/Myanmar cases soon but for now it may be noted that ITLOS set out a single maritime boundary delimiting the territorial seas, exclusive economic zones and continental shelves of the two States. It appears that both parties got something from the decision.  The Tribunal rejected Bangladesh’s argument that both parties had already agreed on a delimitation of the…