124 / 532
108
JAN ONDŘEJ
CYIL 5 ȍ2014Ȏ
refers to Article 1 of the Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf
54
of 1958.
The Court stated that this article represented
customary international law,
55
even
though it used the term
the natural prolongation
, while in the Convention of 1958
the definition uses the formulation
submarine areas adjacent to the coast
.
The concept of
the natural prolongation of the land territory,
in the judgment on
Continental Shelf of 1969, however, was
not acceptable
for those states that
do not have
a seabed
as the
natural prolongation of the land territory
during the Third United Nations
Conference on the Law of the Sea. These states would like to exercise jurisdiction over
the seabed in the proximity of the shore and over the natural resources that can be
found there. These states argued a fixed limit for the continental shelf
56
should be
set. The states that already exercised jurisdiction on the basis of
natural prolongation
beyond the most likely limit of 200 nautical miles were against this. These states
included Great Britain, the USA, and the USSR, which possessed a continental shelf
beyond the 200 nautical miles limit and
were not willing
to renounce their claims to the
resources
57
in these more distant parts of their continental shelf. The dispute was
solved
by compromise
58
in Article 76 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982.
According to Article 76 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of
1982: „the continental shelf of a coastal State comprises the seabed and subsoil of
the submarine areas that extend beyond its 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“. As Churchill and Lowe
59
state, this legal definition is
different from the geological definition. Parts of the sea that lie beyond the physical
continental shelf are included in the distance of 200 nautical miles from the shore.
This provision is today considered
customary international law.
60
Article 76, however, also defines the
outer edge of the continental shelf
, where the
continental margin
extends beyond the 200 nautical miles limit. According to Article 76,
paragraph 3 the
continental margin
comprises the submerged prolongation of the land
mass of the coastal state and consists of the
seabed and subsoil of the shelf, the slope and the
rise
. It does not include the deep ocean floor with its oceanic ridges or the subsoil thereof.
According to Article 76, paragraph 2 of the Convention, the continental shelf
of a coastal State shall not extend beyond the limits provided for in paragraphs 4
54
The text of the Convention is available in Czech as Úmluva vyhl. č. 114/1964 Sb. The Convention on
the Continental Shelf from 1958 defines the continental shelf as
“the seabed and subsoil of the submarine
areas adjacent to the coast but outside the area of the territorial sea, to a depth of 200m.”
55
Churchill, R. R. and Lowe, A. V.,
op. cit.
, p. 147.
56
Evans, M. D. (editor),
op. cit.
, p. 642.
57
Churchill, R. R. and Lowe, A. V.,
op. cit
., p. 148.
58
Evans, M., D. (editor),
op. cit.
, p. 642.
59
Churchill, R. R. and Lowe, A. V.,
op. cit.
, p. 148.
60
Ibid.