Sarawak Alteration of Boundaries of 1954: Revisiting Sarawak’s Claim on Petroleum Deposits on the Continental Shelf

Abstract

This article discusses the issue surrounding the government of Sarawak’s claim of jurisdiction over the continental shelf adjacent to the state’s coast. The ulterior aim is to claim state ownership and rights over oil and gas deposits in the area. The legal premise of their claim is rooted in the state territory that was established before Malaysia was formed in 1963. It refers to the Sarawak Alteration of Boundaries of 1954 (SAB 1954), which proclaimed the extension of the state’s borders to include the continental shelf adjacent to its coast, thereby ensuring the state’s rights to oil and natural gas in the area. However, based on historical and legal contexts, this law is no longer relevant because the 1954 law had been overruled by the ratification of the 1958 Geneva Convention of the Continental Shelf (CCS1958) under the sanction of the United Nations for governing the continental shelf located in the territorial sea between 3 and 12 nautical miles from the coastal line of coastal states under a nation. It is also important to note that the claim to extend the jurisdiction over the offshore territorial sea between 12 and 200 nautical miles from the coastal line of the state, known as the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), cannot be based on the pre-Malaysia status quo. In actuality, the EEZ had only come into existence in 1982 with the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.