Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>A major contribution of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to the international legal order is the establishment of a universally applicable regime of maritime zones. A State’s entitlement to maritime zones flows from its land territory; however, sea-level rise induced by climate change is increasingly eroding or inundating coastlines, raising the question of whether maritime zones might shrink or be lost as a result. For decades, the long-held view was that sea-level rise would very likely result in the loss of maritime entitlements, including rights to the valuable natural resources of the exclusive economic zone. However, attention has recently been shifting towards the legal stability of maritime zones: under this new understanding of UNCLOS, maritime zones may be preserved notwithstanding sea-level rise. To reconcile this tension between old and new understandings of the law, the book offers a contemporary interpretation of the legal rules in UNCLOS, grounded in an expanded body of State practice encompassing both international declarations and domestic legislation. Through systematic analysis of this evidence within the framework of treaty interpretation, the book consolidates the doctrinal basis for the view that the preservation of maritime zones may be achieved through interpreting existing provisions of UNCLOS, rather than requiring a treaty amendment. As the first monograph to offer a systematic conceptualization of the emerging notion of the ‘legal stability of maritime zones’, the book offers a principled framework for preserving maritime zones, demonstrating the law’s capacity to evolve in response to global challenges.</jats:p>