The Antarctic System, a Laboratory for International Inspection Regimes

• Published in: International Journal of Law and Society
• Main Author: Maurel, Raphaël
• Other Authors: Centre de Recherche sur le Droit des Marchés et des Investissements Internationaux Dijon (CREDIMI), Université de Bourgogne (UB), Centre de droit international de Nanterre (CEDIN), Université Paris Nanterre (UPN)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: Antarctic International Law International Inspection Sovereignty Cold War Guarantee Peacekeeping; Antarctic; International Law; International Inspection; Sovereignty; Cold War; Guarantee; Peacekeeping; [SHS]Humanities and Social Sciences; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03976330; https://hal.science/hal-03976330/document; https://hal.science/hal-03976330/file/10.11648.j.ijls.20230601.18.pdf; https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20230601.18

International audience This research paper is a continuation of research conducted in 2018 at the Center for Study and Research of the Hague Academy on international inspections from a historic perspective. It focuses on how the drafters of the Antarctic Treaty resurrected a system of inspection that had been relatively forgotten since the great peace treaties of 1919, in the service of avoiding new global conflicts. While it is the starting point for the revival of international inspection, this model has not been extended in the same way throughout the Antarctic system or beyond. For example, a form of inspection was used in 1967 to guarantee the peaceful exploration of extra-atmospheric space; but it was not adopted in the same terms and the Antarctic's inspection remains quite a unique system. The article questions the reasons for this limited transposition, at a time when inspection is experiencing a revival of interest in international sanitary law or in corporate vigilance in Europe with respect to human rights. After a contextualization, it highlights the successes of the Antarctic inspection regime before considering, from a more forward-looking angle, the difficulties and criticisms to which the regime is subject. It faces in particular the evolutions of the geopolitical context of the Antarctic, less focused on nuclear issues than on environmental and touristic problematics.