Delimitation of the Continental Shelf and Determination of the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 Nautical Miles in Areas of Overlapping Claims: The Nordic Model

Abstract

Many provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Convention) and related instruments are applicable to the case of overlapping claims by two or more coastal States to a continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles (M). The Icelandic continental shelf encompasses three different areas beyond 200 M in the Northeast Atlantic: the AEgir Basin area to the northeast of Iceland, the Reykjanes Ridge to the southwest and the Hatton-Rockall area to the south. The Agreed Minutes are historic in that they resolve potentially complex maritime delimitation issues in an area of overlapping claims by three States to continental shelf beyond 200 M. Although not unanimous, the two Agreed Minutes, one between Iceland, Norway and Denmark/Faroe Islands from 2006 and the other between Iceland and Denmark/Greenland from 2013, are based on the same concept and principles, and may be referred to as the Nordic model. Keywords: continental shelf; Greenland; Icelandic continental shelf; maritime delimitation; nordic model