The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) came into force
on 16 November 1994. The Convention created a new juridical order for the sea with
a bearing on the partition of natural resources. The 21st century will continue to be a
century of maritime delimitation settlement. More than 400 maritime boundaries
must be defined, of which only one third have been settled by bilateral agreements or
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byjurisprudence. TheSouthChinaSea,hostingasitdoes20disputes,maybe
viewed as one of the ‘hot’ regions in the world in terms of overlapping maritime claims.
The Gulf of Thailand, and the South China Sea as a whole, is characterised by a slow pace in maritime boundary delimitation. This phenomenon can be attributed to several factors. Firstly, broad geopolitical disagreements have hampered countries from reaching swift agreements. Secondly, the region has been affected profoundly by the colonial experience and problems exist over the interpretation of certain colonial treaties. For example, Cambodia and Thailand disagree over the interpretation of the France-Thai treaty of 1907 while Vietnam and Cambodia do not share the same view on the role of the Brevié line in maritime delimitation
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negotiations. Thirdly,therearemanyislandsandisletsintheregionwhichhave
raised difficulties in relation to maritime jurisdiction. If maritime disputes in Asia
3 generallytendtofocusontheissueofislandsovereignty, themaritimedisputesin
the Gulf of Thailand deal principally with the question of the effect of islands on
4 delimitation.
Delimitation in the Gulf has not proved easy. The confrontation between two blocs - Indochina and ASEAN - and the civil war in Cambodia has effectively prevented several of the littoral states from conducting negotiations with one another. However, where negotiations have been possible, the coastal states have shown a tendency to enter into provisional arrangements, such as joint development, in order to peacefully shelve disputes and exploit natural resources without prejudice to a final delimitation.
On 21 February 1979, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on joint development was concluded between Thailand and Malaysia. An agreement on Cambodian-Vietnamese historic waters was concluded on 7 July 1982, placing a
5 maritimeareaunderajointutilisationregime. Beforeconcludingtheagreementon
their maritime boundary in August 1997, Thailand and Vietnam had also discussed
6 thepossibilityofjointdevelopmentfortheiroverlappingclaimsarea. Additionally,
Vietnam and Malaysia applied the same principles in their MoU of 5 June 1992 instituting a joint exploitation regime for a “Defined Area” in the Gulf of Thailand. Finally, in 1999, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia agreed in principle on joint development for a small overlapping area.
These agreements have put the region at the forefront of the application of joint
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development arrangements, not only within Asia but the world. The Gulf will also
be the region which has the first multilateral agreement on joint development if the tripartite accord between Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia is approved in the near future. Why is this model preferred in the Gulf? What are the factors which ensure the success of a joint development agreement? What lessons can be drawn from this experience?