Author(s)

Adebisi Arewa

Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Lagos, Nigeria.

This study undertakes the critical appraisal of public international law and state practice regarding ownership of resources offshore. The insights gained regarding the nature of such rights shall be ranged against the perennial acrimonious contentions between the Nigerian Federal State and its Oil Producing Riparian Constituents. The study found that Articles 56, 57 and 76 and 77 of UNCLOS III, 1982 is jus inter gentium and does not vest unqualified rights over both living and non-living offshore resources. That granted, the study further found that reliance on the orthodoxy of Public International Law will result in absurd and inequitable outcomes.

Ownership of Resources Offshore, Sovereign Rights over Offshore Resources, Nature of States Rights Offshore, Federal State, Riparian Constituents, Resource Allocative Mechanism

Arewa, A. (2023) Unravelling the International Law/Federalism Conundrum: The Nigerian Onshore/Offshore Dichotomy Controversy Revisited. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 11, 560-588. doi: 10.4236/jss.2023.116036.