Baseline determination : an examination with special reference to the low-water mark
Since it is essential that all frontiers, whether on land or at sea, should be certain and definite, all rights which depend for their exercise upon territorial sovereignty must be valid up to a given line and there stop. 1 Numerous methods have been used to delimit maritime boundaries as evidenced by State practice. But when exact sea boundary measurement was initiated in the last century all methods were based on the concept of LWM as a line of limitation. Although today the concept of LWM is one of fundamental importance for the application of a variety of international sea law rules, 200 years ago and further back in the era of ancient Rome, the LWM was held to be of no consequence. According to Roman law the air, running water, the sea and the sea-shore may be mentioned as examples of "things" being common to all (res commune). 2 That means that the sea was a "thing" belonging to no-one and the maritime boundary lay at the sea-shore. However, even if a res commune in its entirety was not susceptible to private ownership, it was nevertheless possible to acquire ownership of a specific portion thereof, 3 (e.g. by fishing).
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
Institute of Marine and Environmental Law