À QUI APPARTIENNENT LES ICEBERGS ? DISCUSSION AUTOUR DU STATUT DES ICEBERGS EN DROIT INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC

• Published in: Revue québécoise de droit international
• Main Author: Quilleré-Majzoub, Fabienne
• Format: Text
• Language: French
• Published: Société québécoise de droit international 2007
• Subjects: geo; droit; Antarctic; Arctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Iceberg*; Law of the Sea
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.7202/1068961ar; http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1068961ar

Water shortages remind us that polar ices constitute the biggest source of drinking water in the world. Under the form of icebergs, they represent more drinking water than the annual production of all rivers of the world combined. Hence, icebergs have an important potential for drinking water production. In the absence of a specific status, their conditions of exploitation fall under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Montego Bay Convention). They are thus available for anybody's exploitation while in the high sea, as long as it is in respect of the sovereign rights of coastal States; either their territorial sea or their exclusive economic zone. Conversely to the Arctic, which is also submitted to the Montego Bay Convention, exploitation of any sort is forbidden in the Antarctic, as prescribed by the Antarctic Treaty System. The assimilation of icebergs to the waters in which they float, bring about the lack of continuity in which they are taken into account by international law. The currents propositions related to the unification of their status are not satisfying and international law as it is does not propose any transposable solution. Therefore, it is necessary to define which pathways can lead to a solution that will generate sufficient consensus to be the subject of a future status. Les pénuries d’eau nous rappellent que les glaces polaires constituent le plus grand réservoir d’eau douce de la planète. Sous forme d’icebergs, elles représentent plus d’eau douce que la production annuelle cumulée de toutes les rivières du globe. Les icebergs présentent donc des potentialités énormes de production d’eau douce. À défaut d’un statut spécifique, les conditions de leur exploitation sont établies par la Convention de Montego Bay sur le droit de la mer. Ils font ainsi l’objet d’une liberté d’exploitation au profit de tous dans la haute mer, et dans le respect des droits souverains des États côtiers, soit dans la mer territoriale ou dans la zone économique exclusive. Contrairement à l’Arctique également ...