COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF TO MEET AT HEADQUARTERS, 16-20 JUNE
Press Release
SEA/1553
COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF TO MEET AT HEADQUARTERS, 16-20 JUNE
19970611 The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will hold its first session at Headquarters from 16 to 20 June. The Commission is the body mandated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to make recommendations to coastal States who claim that their continental shelf extends beyond 200 nautical miles from their coasts. The Convention entered into force on 16 March 1994.The continental shelf is the under-sea extension of a coastal State's land territory. It is defined in the Convention as the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond a coastal State's territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured, where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance.
A coastal State exercises jurisdiction over the natural resources of its continental shelf. The resources of the seabed and subsoil beyond the outer limits of the continental margin are considered to be part of the common heritage of mankind and are not subject to any State's jurisdiction.
The Convention confers on every coastal State jurisdiction over the resources of its continental shelf up to 200 nautical miles from its coastline, where the distance between opposite or adjacent States permits this. The distance coincides with a coastal State's jurisdiction over the resources within its exclusive economic zone, which can also extend up to 200 nautical miles.
The Commission was created to deal with specific circumstances where a coastal State wishes to exercise jurisdiction over its continental shelf in an area extending up to 350 nautical miles from its coast line, or 100 nautical miles from the 2,500 metre isobath, which is the line connecting the depth of the ocean at 2,500 metres. In such cases, the coastal State must follow precise formulations laid down in the Convention, provide technical data to support its claim, and submit evidence thereof to the Commission.
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The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is comprised of 21 members with expertise in the fields of geology, geophysics or hydrography. They are elected to five-year terms by the States parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea. The present Commission was elected by the States parties at their Sixth Meeting, held at Headquarters from 10 to 14 March. The Commission is the last of the three bodies created by the Convention to be established. The others are the International Seabed Authority and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
According to the Convention, when a coastal State intends to establish the outer limits of its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, it must submit particulars of such limits to the Commission along with supporting scientific and technical data as soon as possible, but in any case within 10 years of the entry into force of the Convention for that State.
For its part, the Commission is to consider the data and other material submitted by the coastal State. It is also to provide scientific and technical advice, if requested by the coastal State concerned, during the preparation of this data.
Upon receipt of the data submitted by the coastal State, the Commission is to consider the information and then make a recommendation to the coastal State. In case a coastal State disagrees with the recommendations of the Commission, it must within a reasonable period of time make a revised or new submission to the Commission.
During its first session, the Commission is expected to devote its attention to a number of organizational matters, such as the election of its Chairman, the organization of its work, and the adoption of its draft rules of procedure.
Continental Shelf
The concept of sovereignty or jurisdiction over the resources of the continental shelf was driven by technological advances, particularly in relation to drilling for hydrocarbons under the sea. In the mid to late 1940s, a number of States unilaterally claimed jurisdiction over the resources of the seabed and subsoil of the continental shelf adjacent to their territorial sea. The most notable of those claims was the declaration in 1948 by the United States -- known commonly as the Truman Proclamation -- in which it claimed "the natural resources of the subsoil and sea-bed of the continental shelf beneath the high seas but contiguous to the coasts of the United States as appertaining to it". A number of States followed suit, but with varying degrees of jurisdiction and sovereignty. The result was an increased ambiguity as to what was the precise definition of the continental
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shelf. The term "continental shelf" then became no more than a convenient formula covering a diversity of titles or claims to the seabed and subsoil adjacent to the territorial sea of States.
In the early 1950s, the International Law Commission began an effort to develop a more precise definition of the continental shelf and of the jurisdiction of a coastal State over its resources -- mainly hydrocarbon resources at the time. In 1958, the first United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea adopted a definition enunciated by the International Law Commission, which defined the continental shelf to include "the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas adjacent to the coast but outside the area of the territorial sea, to a depth of 200 metres, or, beyond that limit, to where the depth of the superjacent waters admits exploitation of the natural resources of the said areas". With further advances in technology, particularly in deep seabed drilling technology, this definition came into question, particularly as it allowed States to claim jurisdiction over areas where they had the means to drill for oil and other hydrocarbons.
This so-called issue of exploitability continued to cause uncertainty and ambiguity with regard to coastal States' jurisdiction over the continental shelf. The issue was finally resolved at the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, and implemented through the Convention on the Law of the Sea, by using a single criteria -- the distance criteria. That gave a coastal State jurisdiction over resources of the continental shelf up to a distance of 200 nautical miles, which coincides with the coastal State jurisdiction over its exclusive economic zone. The coastal State exercises sovereign rights over all the resources of the zone, whether found on the seabed or the waters above it.
The jurisdiction of a coastal State over resources of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles applies only to those resources found on the seabed or the subsoil thereof. The water column and its resources beyond 200 nautical miles is considered high seas, open to all nations.
Membership of Commission
The 21 Members of the Commission are: Alexandre Tagore Medeiros De Albuquerque (Brazil); Osväldo Pedro Astiz (Argentina); Lawrence Folajimi Awosika (Nigeria); Aly I. Beltagy (Egypt); Samuel Sona Betah (Cameroon); Harald Brekke (Norway); Galo Carrera Hurtado (Mexico); André Chan Chim Yuk (Mauritius); Peter F. Croker (Ireland); Noel Newton Francis (Jamaica); Kazuchika Hamuro (Japan); Karl H. F. Hinz (Germany); A. Bakar Jaafar (Malaysia); Mladen Juracic (Croatia); Yuri Borisovitch Kazmin (Russian Federation); Iain C. Lamont (New Zealand); Lu Wenzheng (China); Chisengu Leo M'Dala (Zambia); Yong-Ahn Park (Republic of Korea); Daniel Rio (France); and K. R. Srinivasan (India).
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