Speaking in the abstract, the first question to determine is who has
sovereignty over the islands.  Whether there is any presumption of
sovereignty over islands within the territorial sea of a State may be
considered by the International Court of Justice when it gives judgment in
a few months in Qatar v. Bahrain.  Another recent case in which the
question of sovereignty had to be determined first was the arbitration
between Eritrea and Yemen.  Once the sovereignty has been determined, a
variety of methods exists for effecting a delimitation designed to produce
an "equitable result".  

Off the top of my head, I seem to recall that there was a neutral zone
between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia once.  There are quite a few joint
development zones.

I think that, esp. if you are not a lawyer, works by Prescott are a good
place for you to start.

Maurice Mendelson



At 08:22 AM 4/12/00 -0700, Arif Samad wrote:
>Hello
>
>Yesterday, I was reading about the history of the
>islands of Australia that lies just a mile off the
>coast of Papua New Guinea.  Does anybody know if there
>are any maritime laws governing the boundaries formed
>by such islands of one country just off the coast of
>other?  Can anybody name others besides the Greek
>islands off the coast of Turkey?
>I am also curious about neutral zones.  Some maps show
>neutral zones near Ceuta, Mellilla and Gibraltar. 
>Does anybody know the history behind it.  Are there
>any other neutral zones besides these and (maybe
>defunct) Iraq-Saudi Arabia one.
>Thank you for your help.
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Send online invitations with Yahoo! Invites.
>http://invites.yahoo.com
>
>
Prof. M.H. Mendelson, QC
Faculty of Laws
University College London
4 Endsleigh Gardens
LONDON
WCIH 0EG
ENGLAND.

Tel. (+44) (0) 171 391 1446; secretary 1428; fax (+44) (0) 171 916 8539. 


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%