ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the critical importance of baselines to the delineation of the outer limits of maritime claims and the delimitation of maritime boundaries. Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea applicable to polar coasts are explored, and key challenges in their application are identified in that context. These provisions are considered to be ill-suited to high-latitude coasts, especially as a result of climate change impacts. The extensive State practice relating to baselines in the Arctic region is reviewed, with particular reference to the definition of basepoints on ice-covered coasts. The array of proposals and more limited State practice relating to baselines in Antarctica are also appraised. The option of fixing baselines in the face of enhanced coastal erosion in the Arctic is viewed as worthy of consideration and the creation of an Antarctic-specific baselines rule is advocated, though the geopolitical impediments to this are acknowledged.
