CYIL 2014

134 / 532

118
JAN ONDŘEJ CYIL 5 ȍ2014Ȏ
no need, however, to be worried about military escalation which could lead to open
armed conflict.
It is evident that the application of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
of 1982 in the Arctic raises a number of questions. One of the main issues is the
extension of the continental shelf of individual states beyond 200 nautical miles.
In any case, Article 82, paragraph 1 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
clearly states that the coastal state shall make payments or contributions in kind with
respect to the exploitation of the non-living resources of the continental shelf beyond
200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is
measured99. These payments or contributions are, according to Article 82, paragraph
4, made through the International Seabed Authority, which shall distribute them.
This leads us to the assumption that part of the seabed of the Arctic Ocean has the
character of the seabed beyond the national jurisdictions of states (sovereignty), and
the regime of the area and its resources have the character of the common heritage
of mankind. (Article 136 and subsequent of the UN Convention on the Law of
the Sea). It is a specific regime created on the basis of the Convention which is
realized on the basis of it. The Authority plays the important role of an organization
which approves and checks all activities on the seabed and itself performs some of
them. These aspects are to be taken into account in the future. The question of
the common heritage of mankind in relation to the Arctic and also the role of the
Authority arises. Another issue is the actual exploitation of the seabed under the
Arctic ocean. According to Jazev100 (the Russian Gas Association President and Vice-
President of the Russian State Duma), Russia is not rushing with its exploitation
in the Arctic and reckons that the gas from the deposits in the North Pole region
will be used after 2030. According to him exploitation in the Arctic Ocean faces
technological and legal problems. He states that „the question of delineation of
Arctic zones has not been resolved. Several states, such as Russia, Canada, Norway
and other countries, claim their part. Voices of other countries not bordering the
Arctic are also heard saying that this territory is the common heritage of mankind“.101
State-of-the-art technology will be necessary for the extreme conditions. Exploitation
in the Arctic involves high costs. Jazev102 estimates the cost of the extraction of gas
to be at least 120 dollars per thousand cubic metres, which is about twice as much as
what extraction costs today.
99 Art. 82 para. 2 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982. “The payments and contributions shall be
made annually with respect to all production at a site after the first five years of production at that site. For
the sixth year, the rate of payment or contribution shall be 1 per cent of the value or volume of production at
the site. The rate shall increase by 1 per cent for each subsequent year until the twelfth year and shall remain
at 7 per cent thereafter. Production does not include resources used in connection with exploitation.”
100 Rusko s těžbou ropy v Arktidě nespěchá. Je to drahé. Aktuálně.cz, from 5 November 2010. available
at: (accessed on 22 July 2013).
101 Ibid.
102 Ibid.