International Law Basics of Governance of Subsoil in Kara Sea

Abstract

Introduction. International law issues of using subsoil are addressed in many legal researches, which cover the normative content of this term and the subsoil extension of a state sovereignty within the state’s boundaries and also the status of marine subsoil both within and beyond the continental shelf. Taking into account this wide array of research materials this paper addresses a rather specific topic, which is of huge economic importance for Russia, that is the past, present and future legal mechanism of subsoil management in Kara Sea. In addition to that the paper address in this context the sharp change in 2022 the international legal policy in the Northern Polar region, which was initiated by the seven western countries-members of the Arctic Council.Materials and methods. International and national legal documents of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union and also Russian Federation (which are applicable to the bottom of the Kara Sea) are used as materials for this research. The teachings of the qualified legal scholars devoted to these documents are also scrutinized. The author has relied upon general research methods as well as those which are specifically used by lawyers.Results of the research. During the period of the Russian Empire only suggestions were published as to the international law possibility to extend the administrative functions of Russia to the bottom of the whole Kara Sea. During the soviet period (until Gorbachev’s “perestroika” start in 1985) Kara Sea bottom and its subsoil were unanimously qualified as a part of state’s maritime territory of the Soviet Union. The relevant act of legislation, however, was never adopted. At the same time, no legal act was adopted, what might contradict the doctrinal qualification of Kara Sea and its subsoil as being under the sovereignty of the USSR and under its exclusive state control. In 1985 such a legal approach ceased to exist: according to the first northern “Gorbachev’s” Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR only small part of the subsoil of Kara Sea was legally qualified as being under the sovereignty of the country. As for the larger part of such subsoil, it has legally received a “weaker” status – as subsoil of the continental shelf implying that foreign states have some rights on the continental shelf.Discussion and conclusions. Up till nowadays the legal response of Russia to western states “sanctions” after the Coup d’Etat in Kiev in 2014 were always within international economic law. The fact that western countries introduced in 2022 nonregional disagreements with Russia in the policy in the Arctic Region has legal consequences for Russia. From this moment Russia is also free from the former tradition to respect its previous self-limitations in the Arctic relating to such western states. That covers, inter alia, self-limitations provided in the 1985 Decree relating to the status of subsoil in Kara Sea. In such a context the paper suggests “asymmetric” measures to be adopted by the Russian Federation within the law of the sea.