The long grass at the North Pole
The long grass at the North Pole
Though legally no more significant than any other point in the Arctic Ocean, into which State’s continental shelf the North Pole will ultimately fall is politically charged for the three States involved – Canada, Demark (Greenland) and Russia – that have submitted to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf outer limits within which the Pole falls. The 2014 Danish submission, for an area extending beyond the equidistance line with Canada, was in that sense paradoxically helpful to Canada, as Denmark, with the northernmost land territory, is by definition closest to the Pole, which must therefore lie on its side of any such line drawn between itself and any other State; thus Denmark gave cover to Canada which needed to take a similar approach to define its continental shelf entitlement as including the North Pole. Boundaries will eventually have to be delimited, but as it likely to be 20 years before the Commission examines the last of the submissions, the three States have ample pretext to postpone this step until then, a solution likely to suit them all.
Serdy, Andrew
0b9326c4-8a5a-468f-9ca8-7368ccb07663
15 July 2019
Serdy, Andrew
0b9326c4-8a5a-468f-9ca8-7368ccb07663
Serdy, Andrew
(2019)
The long grass at the North Pole.
12th Polar Law Symposium, University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Hobart, Australia.
02 - 04 Dec 2019.
19 pp
.
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
Though legally no more significant than any other point in the Arctic Ocean, into which State’s continental shelf the North Pole will ultimately fall is politically charged for the three States involved – Canada, Demark (Greenland) and Russia – that have submitted to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf outer limits within which the Pole falls. The 2014 Danish submission, for an area extending beyond the equidistance line with Canada, was in that sense paradoxically helpful to Canada, as Denmark, with the northernmost land territory, is by definition closest to the Pole, which must therefore lie on its side of any such line drawn between itself and any other State; thus Denmark gave cover to Canada which needed to take a similar approach to define its continental shelf entitlement as including the North Pole. Boundaries will eventually have to be delimited, but as it likely to be 20 years before the Commission examines the last of the submissions, the three States have ample pretext to postpone this step until then, a solution likely to suit them all.
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Published date: 15 July 2019
Venue - Dates:
12th Polar Law Symposium, University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Hobart, Australia, 2019-12-02 - 2019-12-04
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Local EPrints ID: 450779
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/450779
PURE UUID: cdb87401-de02-4dd8-9018-cf1c84e545c0
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Date deposited: 11 Aug 2021 16:31
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:02
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