Equity

Equity in the law of the sea is the requirement that maritime delimitation achieve an equitable result, not the application of equity as a free-standing source of law. UNCLOS Articles 74(1) and 83(1) direct that EEZ and continental-shelf boundaries between states with opposite or adjacent coasts be effected by agreement to reach an equitable solution. The ICJ developed the content of equity from the North Sea Continental Shelf cases (1969) onward, settling on the equidistance-relevant-circumstances method that produces equity through a transparent, replicable process rather than ex aequo et bono discretion. Relevant circumstances may include coastal geography, the presence of islands, and gross disproportion of coastal lengths.