ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the determination by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of applicable rules of customary international law to the delimitation of territorial sea zones by coastal States. It focuses on the function in the process of custom of the persistent objector status or otherness. The findings of this analysis inform to address the legitimacy deficit in customary international law through deconstruction. Norway's persistent objector status provides the crucial link between Norway's claim to historical title of the disputed territory contrary to general international law. The persistent objector status appears to be limited to the nascent stage of the process of custom, particularly where universal norms are concerned. Even the US's persistent objector status on the question of extending the territorial sea beyond 3 nautical miles waned to naught in the face of overwhelming support for that rule in the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea.
