Marine Boundary Post independence - Anything Goes - Other topics not covered elsewhere - Tartan Army Message Board Jump to content

Marine Boundary Post independence


Recommended Posts

With the Labour government changing the line of Scottish/English waters a few years ago (in favour of England obviously) thought the passage below may be of some interest to see how it pans out.

"Somalia has taken its maritime border dispute with Kenya to the United Nations top court which could settle a dispute and pave the way for oil and gas exploration.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a statement said Somalia has told the court that both countries disagree about the location of the maritime boundary and that diplomatic negotiations have failed to resolve the dispute. Somalia requests the Court to determine, on the basis of international law, the complete course of the single maritime boundary dividing all the maritime areas appertaining to Somalia and to Kenya in the Indian Ocean, the ICJ said. Somalia has challenged Kenyas attempts to award offshore exploration blocks to Total and Eni in an area where it says the boundary had not been demarcated. At the heart of the dispute is how the boundary between the two countries should be demarcated. Kenya would like the boundary to run horizontally east from the point at which the two nations touch on land. Somalia, which lies to the north of Kenya, would like the onshore border to continue into the ocean diagonally southeast. Source: Platts"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How common/uncommon is it for a maritime boundary to run horizontally from the point that 2 nations meet on land?

There was a pretty detailed rebuttal against Craig Murray's blog on the subject if I remember correctly when I've been googling about this in the past.

Edited by AlfieMoon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

At the risk of being controversial (and without actually studying it's affect on countries around world), it makes more sense to me that the border extends in a straight line at the angle it meets the coast. What works in one situation, would probably be unfair in others so I don't think there can be a hard and fast rule.

That said, I see no reason why Scotland's maritime border should have been subject to an internal rejigging so regardless of the rules, the f*ckers can move it back quick smart.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They'll still be allowed to serve in the British forces.

This. Speak to the many Fijians, Tongans, Irish, Canadians, South Africans, etc who currently serve in the UK military. Not to forget the Nepalese Gurkahs.

IIRC any Commonwealth citizen can serve in the British Military.

Look at Johnson Beharry (won a Victoria Cross in Iraq), born and raised in Grenada.

Anyway Scots can serve in the Scottish Defence Force in one of our proud ancient regiments or our brand spanking new Clyde built Type 26 Frigates.

J

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How common/uncommon is it for a maritime boundary to run horizontally from the point that 2 nations meet on land?

There was a pretty detailed rebuttal against Craig Murray's blog on the subject if I remember correctly when I've been googling about this in the past.

The maritime border should run at an equal distance between the countries. A straight line is common.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With the Labour government changing the line of Scottish/English waters a few years ago (in favour of England obviously) thought the passage below may be of some interest to see how it pans out.

I thought this was a bit of a red herring. I thought the most normal internationally agreed way was via the median line. I think this gives the pattern of the coloured map, for the other countries. It would give rise to a line that swings a bit north of the border at Berwick but then settles down to more like west-east.

I believe this is the line settled on by Blair and Dewar. Although it may be spun as 'landgrab' (seagrab?) it could be considered more like making the border more like how an international border would be drawn.

The test of whether it's a red herring would be to find the Scottish Govt position on it. They may well be comfortable with it, as being more defensible - hold what you have - than opening up this question to more scrutiny.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...


×
×
  • Create New...