Transit submarine pipelines: balancing the coastal and laying States’ jurisdiction in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea

Abstract

The international regulation of submarine pipelines transiting another State’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf other than the laying State is largely non-existent, outside of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Therefore, the study of how that Convention governs this issue area is crucial. The present thesis asks questions related to the rights and duties of the coastal State as well as the laying State. Especially scrutinised is Article 79 of the LOS Convention and how it creates balance between these two types of States. The questions raised concern the content of the freedom to lay submarine pipelines on the one hand, and the grounds of the limitations placed thereupon on the other hand.

The thesis concludes that the LOS Convention creates a balance between coastal and laying State’s interests, rights and duties. However, more needs to be done to create and harmonise a uniform set of standards regulating the laying and maintenance of submarine pipelines.