Peaceful Regulation of Ocean Space
Where does national jurisdiction end? After many years of negotiation to regulate the use of the oceans in a single convention acceptable to all nations, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (the “Con- vention” or UNCLOS)1 was adopted on 10 December 1982 and entered into force on 16 No- vember 1994 (12 months after the participation of the 60th State in the Convention, which allowed it to enter into force). Currently 160 States and the European Union are parties to the Convention. In addition, 18 States have signed the Convention but have not yet ratified it.
Article 76 of the Convention2 provides the legal definition of continental shelf and estab- lishes the procedure for the delineation of its limits. Article 77 establishes that within those limits the coastal States exercises its sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring it and exploiting its natural resources.
The continental shelf extends to the outer edge of the con- tinental margin, or to a distance of 200 M where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance. If a coastal State intends to establish its conti-
nental shelf beyond 200 M (“extended continental shelf”), it needs to submit details of the limits to the Commission along with supporting scientific and technical data2,3. On the extended continental shelf the rights of the coastal State
8 Continental Shelf
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