While some still debate whether or not climate change is a reality, one
of its impacts, sea level rise, is factual. The cause and the rate of sea level
rise might have been inconclusive but its impacts have been clearly felt.
Sea level rise can also change the legal status of insular features (small
islands/rocks and low tide elevation) that will also affect their capacity
in making maritime claim. For an archipelagic State like Indonesia, small
outer islands/rocks or low-tide elevation are important for location of
basepoints forming the entire system of archipelagic baselines. This
paper investigates the impact of sea level rise to the change of baselines
and maritime limits a coastal state may claim. On the other hand, there
is a need to have fixed maritime limits for better management and to
balance rights and duties of coastal to the ocean. This paper provides
options on how Indonesia as a coastal and archipelagic State can fix
their baselines and or maritime limits in the face of coastal instability
due to sea level rise as a consequence of climate change.
