The extended continental shelf: A geographical perspective of the implementation of article 76 of UNCLOS
Abstract The delimitation of the outer edge of the continental margin beyond 200 nautical miles is paving the way for areas where States exercise rights of sovereignty to be extended when their geographical locations with respect to the continental margin allows it. Sixty-one submissions and forty-five preliminary reports, involving a total of ninety-one States (submitted to 31.07.2001), enable some of the geopolitical consequences to be outlined. Amongst those that can be highlighted are sometimes substantial changes in States' territorial bases and economic potential, and the global balance between national and international jurisdictions. This article uses regional and global scale maps based on national reports deposited with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) to present the main geographical and geopolitical findings. The geographical analysis similarly enables a quantitative estimation to be made of the effects of jurisdictional expansion on the “global commons”, of insularity and of the territorial gains made by the States concerned.
The Legal Continental Shelf: Geosciences at sea with UNCLOS
Fig.1. Schematic representation of the Maritime Zones Historical Background Heyerdhal’s altruistic statement notwithstanding, maritime borders are however, no figment of imagination. They are as real as man-made concepts can be, and are governed by one of the oldest areas of international jurisprudence, the Maritime Law, which can be traced back to the period of Roman conquests. Conquests not only led to sovereignty of the land territory but also extended to areas of the seas bordering the land. A three-fold sub-division of ocean space comprising (a) the sovereign offshore area controlled by a nation, (b) the farthest distance as could potentially be conquered, and (c) the rest of the oceans, was perhaps the first and the simplest maritime zonation. With the gradual emergence of the East India Trading Company during the early part of the seventeenth century, the need for unrestricted navigation rights for trading purposes also arose, with economic reasons prevailing over sovereignty issues. This freedom of the High Seas, together with the sovereignty rights of a coastal State over its adjacent sea ultimately became the two pillars of the legislation of maritime space. The aftermath of the Second World War saw a paradigm shift from a state-centric perspective to a more global and interdependent view of the world. Taking cognizance of the need for legislation of marine space, the United Nations in 1950 directed the International Law Commission to “attempt” to codify the maritime law. This set the tone for a series of complex global negotiations that went through three United Nations Conferences on the Law of the Sea and culminated in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which formally opened for signature in Jamaica on the 10 December 1982 and entered into force on the 16 November 1994. UNCLOS, or “The Convention” as it has come to be called, fundamentally seeks the sub-division of the ocean space into several maritime zones (Figure 1), with the rights and responsibilities of a “coastal State” any country that borders the seabeing phased down the successive zones away from the land (United Nations, 1987). Thus, beyond the 12 nautical mile (M) territorial sea, a coastal country has jurisdiction over two types of maritime zones–an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) up to 200 M from its baselines, over which the country may exercise sovereign rights to exploit all living or non-living natural resources of the seabed and the waters above; and an “extended continental shelf” beyond the 200 M limit, over which the State may exercise jurisdiction only over the living and non-living resources of the seabed and but not over the overlying waters.
Straits, Passages and Chokepoints : A Maritime Geostrategy of Petroleum Distribution
The transportation of petroleum represents one of the most strategically important circulations of resources in the global economy. Its role cannot be overstated. Yet, petroleum has become a “strategically invisible” commodity as its flow has been continuous with limited, but eye-opening, disruptions such as the First Energy Crisis is 1973. Petroleum supplies are virtually taken for granted. Since approximately two-thirds of the world’s petroleum production is shipped by sea, there are inherent distribution constraints, which require navigating through straits and passages; chokepoints of maritime circulation. This paper presents an overview of the geography of oil supply and demand, and the strategic issues that are linked to its maritime circulation. Chokepoints are perceived as resources, the value of which varies according to degree of use. As the era of petroleum domination draws to a close, the importance and vulnerability of strategic passages will increase. Their ability to handle additional traffic appears to be limited, implying that future energy crises or oil shortages are more likely to be attributable to the challenges of distribution.