Abstract
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The Chamber of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its
judgment on the location of the maritime boundary between Canada and the
United States in the Gulf of Maine, on October 12, 1984. Less than two
years before, after many years consideration, and an almost complete
failure of consensus during the Third United Nations Conference on the
Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III),1 the international community adopted the
text of Articles 74 and 83 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of
the Sea.2 These two almost identically-worded articles provided the
formula for delimiting the maritime boundaries between States’ exclusive
economic zones (EEZ) and continental shelves. They provide, in part, as
follows:
The delimitation of the exclusive economic zone/continental shelf
between States with opposite or adjacent coasts shall be effected
by agreement on the basis of international law, as referred to in
Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, in
order to achieve an equitable solution.3