CYIL Vol. 5, 2014

WHAT IS THE LEGAL REGIME OF THE ARCTIC? Conference on the Law of the Sea. 47 The question of whether the straits which form the Northwest Passage are used for international navigation and whether the right of transit passage refers to them, however, raises doubts. 48 A similar question rises in relation to the Northeast Passage in northern Russia. It is a question whether these straits are straits for international navigation and whether the right of transit passage refers to them. 49 3.3 Claims to the continental shelf in the Arctic The term c ontinental shelf 50 has appeared in international relations since the beginning of the 20 th century. As far as the Arctic is concerned, Russia claimed their right for some islands in the Arctic Ocean already in 1916, claiming that these islands are a continuation of the Siberian continental platform. 51 The importance of the continental shelf lies in the fact it is not part of the territory of a coastal state; the coastal state exercises its sovereignty for the purpose of exploration and exploitation of natural resources. This means that the coastal state has sovereign rights and nobody else can perform these activities without the expressed consent of the coastal state. The rights of the coastal state over the continental shelf do not depend on occupation, effective or notional, or on any express proclamation. These regulations are contained in Article 2 of the Convention on the Continental Shelf of 1958. The International Court of Justice ruled in the North Sea Continental Shelf case in 1969 and defined the regulation as a demonstration of customary international law. 52 Practically the same regulation is contained in Article 77 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982. The exploitation of the continental shelf can have great importance in the Arctic Ocean considering its extensive mineral resources (see above), while the possibilities of exploitation are increasing due to the melting of Arctic glaciers. The basic definition of the continental shelf is contained in Article 76, paragraph 1 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, according to which “the continental shelf of a coastal state comprises the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin”. This definition was already contained in the judgment of the International Court of Justice in the North Sea Continental Shelf cases 53 of 1969. According to this judgment the continental shelf is the natural prolongation of the land domain into and under the sea. The International Court of Justice judgment of 1969, however, 47 Churchill, R. R. and Lowe, A. V., op. cit. , p. 109. 48 Ibid. , p. 106. 49 Ibid. 50 Molodcov, S. V. Meždunarodnoje morskoje pravo . [International law of the sea] Moskva: Meždunarodnyje otnošenija, 1987, p. 117. 51 Ibid. 52 Evans, M. D. (editor) International Law . Second edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 641. 53 Ibid ., p. 642.

107