Continental Shelf Delimitation Beyond 200 Nautical Miles: Approaches Taken by Coastal States Before The Commission On The Limits Of The Continental Shelf

Abstract

In the introductory note to Volume V of this series, David Colson wrote that “the promotion and resolution of claims to the outer continental shelf beyond 200 n.m. from the coast – a feature of maritime delimitation now in its infancy – is likely to become an important component of many maritime boundary negotiations that are waiting in the wings.”1 David Anderson made note in the same volume that “[t]he delimitation, as between neighboring states, of the continental shelf beyond 200 n.m. is a topic that will doubtless receive greater attention as the work of the Commission gathers momentum.”2 In the five years since the publication of Volume V, the work of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (the CLCS or the Commission) has indeed gathered momentum and delimitation of the continental shelf beyond 200 n.m. from the coast has started to take shape, primarily through the implicit promotion of claims embedded in submissions to the Commission and, to a lesser extent, the resolution by agreement of overlapping claims to extended continental shelf.3 Because there is, as yet, so little State practice in the actual delimitation of the extended continental shelf, this essay focuses on the CLCS submission process and the place of boundary delimitation in that process. In the extended continental shelf game, States have two goals: (1) to maximize, bolster and protect their claims to extended continental shelf