A portion of the continental shelf boundary between Libya and Malta was established in a Judgment handed down by the International Court of Justice in 1985. This boundary delimitation was followed soon after by a bilateral agreement reached by the Parties in 1986 to more accurately define the Court’s decision. The delimitation line extends in a broadly east-west orientation for 67 nautical miles in the central Mediterranean Sea. The boundary line’s configuration was based on the equidistance principle and then adjusted towards Malta to take into account the disparity in the lengths of the relevant coasts. Large portions of the boundary have yet to be determined, due mostly to Italian maritime claims emanating from Sicily.