La contribution au droit international de l’affaire de délimitation maritime Bangladesh/Inde dans la baie du Bengale

The arbitration case concerning the delimitation of the maritime boundary between Bangladesh and India provides an original contribution to international law. The delimitation made by the Arbitral Tribunal is a classic application of the method of equidistance and relevant circumstances. However, the Tribunal analyses finely the value to be attributed to ancient maps and confronts itself to the thorny issue of the effect to be attributed to climate change when drawing a border. It contributes greatly to the future of the law of delimitation anchoring strongly the delimitation exercise in a well-defined time frame : the moment of the judgment. This case is also the second maritime delimitation case dealing with the delimitation of the outer continental shelf. By using the principles established by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the Bangladesh/ Myanmar case and by affirming its jurisdiction vis-à-vis the extended continental shelf, the jurisprudence of this Arbitral Tribunal strengthens the implementation of the legal regime continental shelf and advocates a harmonious joint work of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf and of International Courts and Tribunals.