AL-Qadisiya Journal For Law and Political Sciences

The Preservation of Baselines in the Face of Sea-Level Rise A Study in Light of Recent International Jurisprudence and the Work of the International Law Commission

https://doi.org/10.63677/jqlap.2026.175228.1701
Volume 17, Issue: 2 part 1
Summer 2026
Pages 461-482
AL-Qadisiya Journal For Law and Political Sciences

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Osama Yousif Najim

Al-Iraqia University / College of Law and Political Science

Abstract
This study examines the effects of climate change-related sea-level rise upon the baselines from which maritime zones are measured. The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was negotiated at a time when those effects were not in contemplation, and its provisions accordingly contain no rule addressing them; doctrine has since divided between an ambulatory reading, under which the baseline follows the coast as it shifts landward, and a reading favouring the preservation of baselines at their published coordinates. The first part of the study addresses the legal character of baselines as between the ambulatory and preservationist readings, setting out the arguments of each doctrine and weighing them against one another. The second turns to the legal basis upon which the preservation of baselines rests and the extent of its binding force, in light of the work of the International Law Commission concluded in 2025 and of the advisory opinions given by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the International Court of Justice.
The study of the problem necessitated dividing the research into two sections. The first section addresses the legal nature of baselines between movement and stability, in two subsections, while the second section addresses the legal basis for the stability of baselines and the extent of their binding nature, also in two subsections.

Keywords

Baselines
Sea-Level Rise
Subsequent Practice
Customary International Law
Law
Subjects
  • Receive Date 21 August 2026
  • Accept Date 05 September 2026

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