Penentuan sempadan maritim menggunakan titik pangkal dengan kaedah jarak berkala

Abstract

The maritime boundary between the states in Malaysia and the maritime boundary zone of three nautical miles between the State Goverments and the Federal Government has not been determined yet. Thus, the aim of this study is to establish the maritime boundary between the states in Malaysia as well as between the State Governments and the Federal Government. In determining the maritime boundary, the position of the basepoints for each state should be determined in advance. The position of the basepoints was determined in this study using two methods. The first method used was the outermost seaward basepoints. This method is used by the International Court of Justice in resolving the maritime boundary conflict between the coastal countries in dispute. The second method is the scaled distance of the basepoints, where the gap distances between the basepoints are set to 100 metres, 200 metres, 300 metres, 400 metres and 500 metres in ensuring the best maritime boundary between states. In this study, the maritime boundary between Melaka and Negeri Sembilan, as well as the maritime boundary between Negeri Sembilan and the Federal Government served as a reference to the states in Malaysia. The result shows that the scaled distance of the basepoints had affected the limit of maritime boundary that was formed, such as the maritime zone area of three nautical miles. For basepoints of interval distance of 100 metres, the percentage of area difference compared to the outermost seaward basepoints is 9.25%, a 200 metres interval is 9.16%, a 300 metres interval is 8.95%, a 400 metres interval is 8.79% and a 500 metres interval is 8.54%. A good selection of the scaled distance of the basepoints would provide an impact for the determination of maritime boundary limit. The demarcation of maritime boundary limit with the combination of scaled distance of the basepoints and the outermost seaward basepoints would provide the best solution. Nevertheless, the selection of the position of these basepoints require agreement from both interested parties according to the existing law.