Is the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf Mandated to Consider Submissions from Non-States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea?

Abstract

Abstract This article scrutinises the mandate of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (Commission) to consider submissions from non-States Parties to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC). It challenges the prevailing viewpoints that exclude non-State Parties from the submission process, proposing a nuanced approach that privileges legal orthodoxy and political feasibility. It proposes that LOSC Article 76, containing the Commission’s mandate, can be interpreted as a stipulation pour atrui, conferring rights to third States in accordance with Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Innovatively, this possibility is explored here with a particular concern for preserving the balance of interests achieved in 1982. Its timeliness is due to the intentions of making a submission recently expressed by the United States, a non-State Party.