ABSTRACT
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has received praise for promoting order in the world's oceans. This introductory chapter critically evaluates the effectiveness of UNCLOS in the context of resolving maritime boundary issues in areas of hydrocarbon potential. The chapter introduces the dataset of over 100 disputed maritime boundaries, of which approximately one-third remains unresolved, and highlights the impact that UNCLOS's arguably ambiguous articles, including articles associated with the overlapping maritime claim zones, status of islands and rocks, and provisional solutions, have had on this economically valuable subset of maritime boundary disputes. UNCLOS articles on dispute resolution procedures and provisional agreements, which are extensively discussed in the book, are also explained in this introductory chapter.
