L’extension du plateau continental au large de l’Antarctique : entre volonté de ménager les susceptibilités et défendre ses intérêts

• Published in: VertigO
• Main Author: Anne Choquet
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: Éditions en environnement VertigO 2021
• Subjects: Antarctic; continental shelf; law of the sea; coastal State; mineral resources; geo; droit; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.4000/vertigo.29658; https://doaj.org/article/3b6cc7481726445f99177b7d5c3834ab

In addition to the right to a continental shelf off their coasts, coastal States may approach the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to legally extend their continental shelf which physically extends beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the territorial seas are established. A continental shelf gives States sovereign rights over natural resources for their exploitation. It is important to study the way in which States seek to reconcile the singular legal regime of Antarctica and the conditions laid down by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea for the extension of the continental shelf. Discussions around a possible extension of the continental shelf off Antarctica illustrate how the "freezing" of territorial claims remains at the heart of the management of all human activity in Antarctica.