Historic Waters Regime: A potential Legal Solution to Sea Level Rise

The legal principle articulating that “the land dominates the sea”¹⁾ constitutes a fundamental legal principle under general international law, which requires coastal states to have sovereignty over the land, from which all of their maritime rights stem. Under current international law of the sea, this principle constitutes the most challenging legal obstacle for coastal states to maintain their entitlement over their maritime zones in the event of losing their territories due to sea level rise. In departing from the current international law of the sea, the author explores the possibility of using the doctrine of historic waters as a legal basis for coastal states to safeguard their sovereignty and sovereign rights over their maritime zones as they stand nowadays, regardless of the disappearance of their landmass. It briefly assesses the doctrine of historic waters and recent international practice, particularly the case law of the International Court of Justice and the United States of America. It identifies the relevant legal requirements that coastal states would have to fulfill in order to be able to claim in the future an historic title²⁾over their maritime zones that would have been previously governed by current international law of the sea.