In Thomas Sattich, Espen Moe, Marco Grasso, Miranda Schreurs and Shaohua Yan (eds), De Gruyter Handbook of Ocean Governance and Maritime Affairs. Walter de Gruyter, 2025, pp. 447-466. DOI: 10.1515/9783111195544-033
Maritime space is growing in importance. How states utilize, emphasize, and view the maritime domain is changing. At the same time, maritime boundary disputes exist on all continents. Why do states engage in disputes over who owns what at sea? How do states delineate ownership and rights? How are these dynamics evolving? These core questions are examined in this chapter, which explores and reviews the concept of maritime boundaries and related disputes.
The focus is on exclusive economic zones (EEZs), the extended maritime zones beyond territorial waters. Ocean boundaries delineating EEZs are important constructs for everything from oil and gas production to fisheries and environmental protection. Beyond function, trends like an increasing focus on the intangible attributes of disputes at sea, combined with the ongoing institutionalization of ocean space since the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982, force us to update our assumptions regarding the political dynamics of ocean space.
