Legal Certainty and Stability in the Face of Sea Level Rise: Trends in the Development of State Practice and International Law Scholarship on Maritime Limits and Boundaries

This article identifies and documents a trend in State practice over the past decade or so, regarding the impact of sea level rise on the lawfully determined limits of mari-time zones and the existing maritime boundaries. It juxtaposes this development with the findings and recommendations of two committees of the International Law Association in 2012 and 2018 -the Committees on Baselines and Sea Level Rise -and examines the role played since 2019 by the International Law Commission. It explores the implications of emerging State practice for the interpretation of the rules and prin-ciples of the 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention. It documents the complex interac-tions between the findings of international law scholarship and the evolution of State practice, and concludes that this interaction has played an important role in facilitat-ing legal certainty and stability in the development of a response to this increasingly pressing international law issue.