Principle of Settling Disputes on Delimitation of Maritime Boundaries: A Review of Cases Relevant to the Bay of Bengal and Bangladesh

Scientific research reveals that the Bay of Bengal holds a huge quantity of natural oil and gas. Bangladesh is willing to explore this offshore gas reserve to stimulate its economic growth.But neighboring coastal states India and Myanmar are reluctant to negotiate their claims with Bangladesh recognizing her special circumstances rather they are claiming the gas reserved area of the seawhich is also claimed by Bangladesh. The main dispute over maritime boundary delimitation between Bangladesh, India and Myanmar centers around Bangladeshi views to demarcate on equity basis North to South while Myanmar and India want to apply an equidistance system in East to West and West to East boundary respectively. This study will examine the decisions of the International Courts and Arbitration systems in cases which concern the situation as prevailing at Bay of Bengal in order to search the justification of the Bangladeshi claim of equitable solution considering its special geographical features. This study will explore at the necessity of negotiation as an alternative to the time-consuming and expensive judicial process.