Prospective Anglo-Scottish maritime boundary revisited

The inauguration of the devolved Scottish Parliament has given greater relevance to the question of whether Scotland should have complete independence from the rest of the United Kingdom. For an international lawyer, this raises the question of what might be the prospective continental shelf boundary between England and Scotland. The present article is not concerned with the political or economic aspects of independence or who gets the bigger share of continental shelf or its natural resources. Rather, it focuses on the legal aspects of a prospective maritime boundary delimitation between England and Scotland, taking into consideration other states' practice in relation to disputed maritime boundaries.