The Petronomicon: The Evolution, Operation, and Future of Joint Development in Undelimited Maritime Zones

Joint development is a concept within international law that sits at a nexus between two different priorities for littoral States: assertion and protection of sovereignty, and the exertion of their sovereign rights to exploit seabed and subsoil resources in areas of overlapping claims shared with their neighbouring countries. Provisional arrangements permit States to exploit their shared deposits in the present while delaying a permanent boundary settlement: through these instruments, neither side sacrifices territory and both can profit. This thesis examines joint development agreements (JDAs) in detail and provides four research outputs as products of robust analysis and rigorous scrutiny. First, it recounts the entire history of joint development from its arcane origins to the modern era in a chronicle more complete than any in the extant literature. Second, it proposes revisions to the existing JDA classification system, updating a taxonomy that has existed unchallenged and unamended since first articulated in 1989. Pivoting from scholarship to scrutiny, the third research pillar is an agreement-by-agreement analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of all 14 JDA regimes, and the positive and negative lessons that can be gleaned from their examples. Finally, this work explores the future of joint development as a concept, and JDAs as legal instruments, through the lens of international legal issues, specifically maritime delimitation and multilateral governance. This thesis is both the most exhaustive investigation into the practical performance of every joint development to date and the first truly integrated examination of the concept. It recounts the full history of the concept’s evolution and adoption, the implementation of each sui generis regime, and the progress of all operations past and present, and assays its current status within the constellation of international law. Its greatest contribution is in pivoting away from the exclusive focus in the scholarly literature on the purely legalistic elements of these arrangements and towards a greater emphasis on their functionality. This adjustment has enabled a forensic assessment of their successes and failures to be made using a new, bespoke test. In sum, this work harnesses all elements of joint development – historical, legal, and operational – together into one holistic enquiry tracing its trajectory from its roots to its worldwide proliferation, and forward to its prospects for the future.