Idea and Limits of the Continental Shelf

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The outcome of many years’ development in customary international law and treaty law, the continental shelf is today subject to a special international legal regime. This regime—which acquired its name simply from its geological counterpart—is, basically, one of the maritime zones in which coastal states exercise sovereign rights and jurisdiction. The regime of the continental shelf came into being around the mid-20th century, as technological developments made it easier to exploit offshore hydrocarbon resources in the seabed and its subsoil. These technological advances prompted a series of coastal states to lay claim to maritime areas that previously had belonged to no one: the seabed and subsoil extending beyond the territorial waters. Chief among these claims was that promulgated by US president Harry Truman on 28 September 1945. But who really owned the seabed? The international community was forced to consider the question. Developed concurrently as customary international law in the post–World War II era, the regime on the continental shelf was the subject of multilateral negotiations at consecutive Law of the Sea Conferences under the auspices of the United Nations. The First United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS I) 1958 (cited under Codification) adopted the Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf. This Convention was widely supported and solidified the continental shelf regime in international law, notably with respect to the substantive rights regarding the continental shelf that accrue to a state. The 1958 Convention nevertheless failed to provide an acceptable regime with respect to the definition of the continental shelf. It defined its outer limits using an exploitability criterion; in practice, it meant there were no clearly defined outer limits. The controversies thus continued, and new ideas for the outer limit of the continental shelf unfolded at the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) 1973–1982 (cited under Codification) UNCLOS III culminated with the 1982 adoption of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (the Law of the Sea Convention). Compared to the Geneva Convention, the Law of the Sea Convention contained a more balanced and holistic regime for the law of the sea, including more clearly defined rules concerning the seaward extension of the continental shelf. A vast amount of literature has been published on the legal regime of the continental shelf, of which this bibliography obviously can provide only an overview. It is nevertheless meant to provide authoritative guidance with respect to existing scholarly works, placing emphasis on what are generally considered the key monographs and anthologies, as well as a selection of relevant research articles. For practical purposes, the bibliography is limited to literature in English.