Bangladesh submits that, “whether or not an island can be
characterized as being ‘in front of’ one coast or another does not in itself
determine whether it is a special or a relevant circumstance”. It refers in this
regard to the Case concerning the Delimitation of the Continental Shelf
between United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the
French Republic, in which the Court of Arbitration observed that the pertinent
question is whether an island would produce “an inequitable distortion of the
equidistance line producing disproportionate effects on the areas of shelf
accruing to the two States” (Decision of 30 June 1977, RIAA, Vol. XVIII, p. 3,
at p. 113, para. 243).