Current Legal Developments United Kingdom and Denmark/Faroe Islands Maritime Delimitation Between the United Kingdom and Denmark/ Faroe Islands On 18 May 1999 the United Kingdom and Denmark together with the Faroe Islands signed an Agreement on maritime delimitation.' With this agreement the parties have settled their differences over the delimitation of their maritime zones within 200 nautical miles from the coast. The Agreement does not address the delimitation of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles to the west of the terminal point of the present boundary. Both the United Kingdom and Denmark consider that their continental shelves extend into this area. This commentary provides an overview of the issues which were raised in the negotiations on maritime boundaries, and indicates how these have been resolved in the 1999 Delimitation Agreement. Before extending their fishing zones to 200 nautical miles, Denmark and the United Kingdom had, through an exchange of notes in December 1976, agreed that the boundary between their zones was to be a median line. When the United Kingdom and Denmark defined their 200 nautical mile fishing zones in 1977 it transpired that they did not agree on the baselines to measure the breadth of these zones. First, the United Kingdom had not taken into account the straight baseline to the east of the Faroe Islands. This resulted in an area of some 200 square kilometres between the median lines as established by Denmark and the United Kingdom. 1 Agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark together with the Home Government of the Faroe Islands, on the one hand, and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, on the other hand, relating to the Maritime Delimitation between the Faroe Islands and the United Kingdom (hereinafter Delimitation Agreement) (entered into force on 21 July 1999. The United Kingdom has implemented the Agreement through orders under the Fisheries Limits Act 1978 and the Continental Shelf Act 1964). The English text of the Agreement is reproduced in the Annex to this commentary. The Agreement has also been published in Bestutningsf6rslagNo. B 143 (Udenrigsmin., JT.2 j. No. 46. Folketinget 1998-99, pp. 3ff. 541 542 The largest area of overlapping zones between the median lines employed by the United Kingdom and Denmark was situated to the south of the Faroe Islands. This area, which measured some 8,000 square kilometres, resulted from the fact that Denmark rejected the use of a number of small British islands, including North Rona, Sula Sgeir Stack Skerry and Sule Skerry,2 lying a considerable distance from the Scottish mainland coast. A final area of overlapping zones, measuring some 5,000 square kilometres, was situated in the western part of the fishing zones. For this area, Denmark rejected the use of Rockall as basepoint and the United Kingdom had not taken into account a straight baseline along the Faroe Islands. Most of the overlap in this area was caused by using Rockall as a basepoint for measuring the UK 200 nautical mile fishing zone. The area of overlap was reduced to only about 80 square kilometres in 1997, when the United Kingdom no longer used Rockall as a basepoint to establish the extent of its fishing zone.3 Denmark and the United Kingdom treated the three areas of overlapping fishing zones as "grey zones" to which both sides had equal access. The importance of this arrangement in part lies in the fact that the Faroe Islands, which enjoy a measure of home rule, are not a part of the European Community (EC). This implies that the Common Fisheries Policy of the EC, giving Member States access to each other's fishing zones, does not apply to the fishing zone of the Faroe Islands. This gives the boundary with the United Kingdom a greater practical weight than would have been the case if the Faroe Islands had been a part of the EC. As far as the delimitation of the continental shelf within 200 nautical miles from the coast was concerned, Denmark and the United Kingdom differed on whether the boundary should coincide with the fishing zone boundary, or should be established taking into account different considerations, such as the length of the relevant coasts.4 Denmark and the United Kingdom refrained from opening certain areas of continental shelf for exploration of hydrocarbon resources, which resulted in the existence of a "white zone" of some 41,000 square kilometres. This white zone included the areas of overlapping claims to fishing zones.5 Denmark and the United Kingdom held three rounds of negotiations on the delimitation of the continental shelf within 200 nautical miles from their coasts and their fishing zones. The first two were held in 1978 and 1984-85, whereas the negotiations resulting in the 1999 Delimitation Agreement had been ongoing 2 Apart from North Rona, which has a maximum length of some 1.5 kilometres, all the islands mentioned measure less than 1 kilometre. 3 significantly square On this roll-back, see further R.R. Churchill, "United Kingdom: Accession to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea", (1998) 13 International Journal of' marine and Coastal Law 263-273 at 271-273; C.R. Symmons, "Ireland and the Rockall Dispute: An Analysis of Recent 6 IBRU and Bulletin at 4 Developments", (1998) Boundary Security 1, 78-93 83ff,. See BeslutningsforslagNo. 143, p. 16. 5 See ibid. .