Review on some aspects of legal and scientific understandings regarding outer continental shelf limits in the Arctic Ocean

Abstract

Among the most controversial criteria in the delimitation of outer continental shelf are ridge provisions in article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. In 2001, Russia claimed its sovereign rights to the continental shelf in central Arctic Ocean. Focusing on this Russian submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), this article aims to widely address the historical, legal and scientific aspects of the continental shelf that are necessary to be reviewed by coastal States seeking to claim the extended continental shelf beyond their 200 nautical miles (M) territory. Ridge provisions with the natural prolongation standard can be invoked as a useful tool in order to remove the 350 M constraints for outer limits of the continental margin. Three features should be carefully considered to classify ridges correctly: geological continuity, crustal neutrality and envelop of the foot of the continental slope. Geomorphological data ought to be carefully considered together with geological and geophysical data to prepare the submission to the CLCS. The CLCS has a full responsibility to interpret the provisions and apply the legal and scientific criteria in reviewing the submission by coastal States. Given the high possibility of getting easily rejected due to the heavy workload of the CLCS, a coastal State should expend considerable amounts of time and efforts in claiming its outer limit of continental shelf based on a ridge and natural prolongation.