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SUBMARINE BOUNDARIES 289
(Iran alone has signed the Convention but has not yet ratified it.)
At any rate, all these States have already accepted the codified rules
of the Convention concerning the median line as valid expressions of
international practice.
Baseline problems: The adoption of the median line principle as a basis
for the division of the continental shelf in the Gulf raises the relative
problem concerning the drawing of the baseline from which the
breadth of the territorial sea or the median line could be measured.
In accordance with the principles laid down in the 1958 Conventions
on the Territorial Sea and on the Continental Shelf, ‘the normal
baseline for measuring the breadth of the territorial sea [or the median
line] is the low-water line along the coast as marked on large-scale
charts officially recognised by the coastal State’.1 Moreover, under
certain conditions the above principles permit the use of low-tide
elevations and islands within the breadth of the territorial sea from
the mainland as baselines for measuring the breadth of the territorial
sea2 or the median line. It is suggested by some authorities that the
construction of median lines in narrow seas and gulfs, such as the
Arabian Gulf, could give rise to the questions of‘special circumstances’,
referred to in Article 6 of the Continental Shelf Convention. Thus, in
the Arabian Gulf, in particular, the principle of special circumstances
could be invoked in disregarding the great number of small islands
and shoals that are scattered in this Gulf for measuring the median
line, since the use of these islands and shoals as baselines for con­
structing the median line could produce inequitable results, viz. large
deflections of the line. These considerations have led some experts to
recommend the construction of the median line directly from base­
lines fixed along the opposite coasts of the mainland, irrespective of
islands.3
1 Article 3 of the Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone
and Article 6 of the Convention on the Continental Shelf.
2 Article 11 of the Convention on the Territorial Sea. However, it is provided
by Article 4 (3) of this Convention that ‘baselines shall not be drawn to and
from low-tide elevations, unless lighthouses or similar installations which are
permanently above sea level have been built on them1. For lawyers’ comments on
the ‘controversial problems’ of drawing baselines, see Doan, A. H., ‘The Geneva
Conference on the Law of the Sea: What was Accomplished', A.J.l.L., 52 (1958),
pp. 616-19; Fitzmaurice, Sir Gerald, ‘Some Results of the Geneva Conference
on the Law of the Sea’, I.C.L.Q., 8 (1959), 84-7.
3 According to Padwa, op. cit., p. 649: ‘The best rule would include only those
islands which form an integral part of the coastal domain. This is determined on
an objective basis by excluding all islands except those linked by straight baselines
or those within the territorial sea of the coastal State as measured from the main­
land. . . .’ For a similar view, see Boggs, S. W., ‘Delimitation of Seaward Areas
under National Jurisdiction’, A.J.l.L., 45 (1951), p. 258. Here Boggs states his
theory about the eases where an island could be treated as part of the mainland
baseline. He says: ‘The most reasonable and workable rule is believed to be to