A couple of comments from the Antipodes.
3cm may even be too little precision. The 960-odd points defining the
boundaries of the 30 enclaves of Belgium and the Netherlands at
Baarle-Nassau/Baarle-Hertog were defined by coordinates in both the Dutch
and Belgian national grids, each to a precision of 1cm. Due to costs and
convenience (many points are inside buildings), none were monumented.
A change in datum such as that made by Australia recently, may involve a
change in Lat/Long in the order of 100s of metres.
Ideally, any ICJ decision, or international treaty, should specify the
status of attached maps and not rely on an assumed legal provision on their
status, if such a thing exists. This then allows for any differences
between map and text (see for example Radcliffe's partition of
India/Pakistan in 1947 and the resulting question of Berubari on the
northern East-Pakistan/India boundary not solved until 1974 (and still
invoked), or the Belgo-Dutch dispute 1920s-1950s over the status of an
enclave of Belgium in the Netherlands, in both cases the map and text of a
treaty differed. One of these led to major international difficulties. The
other was submitted to the ICJ and the final ruling respected by both parties).
Dr Brendan Whyte
Assistant Map Curator
ERC Library
University of Melbourne
Vic 3010
AUSTRALIA
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