Beyond National Jurisdiction: Polar Regions
Polar Regions - Arctic and Antarctic
The Arctic contains the geographic North Pole and consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas and parts of eight nations: Alaska (United States), Northern Canada, Finland, Greenland (Denmark), Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden. The Arctic is partly under the jurisdiction of these eight nations in the Arctic Circle, including six coastal States which, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), have control over natural resources in seabed and the waters out to 200 nautical miles in their respective exclusive economic zones (EEZ). Several of the Arctic coastal States have presented evidence to the UNCLOS Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to claim exclusive rights to the resources on or below the seabed beyond their EEZs in an extended continental shelf. Despite conflicting claims to the contrary, as of 2018, no country has established jurisdiction over the North Pole or areas of the Arctic Ocean beyond the coastal States' EEZs.
The Antarctic consists of Earth's southernmost continent, Antarctica, surrounded by the Southern Ocean. Antarctica, the fifth largest continent, is 98 percent covered by ice and hosts the geographic South Pole. It is Earth's only continent without a native human population. To defuse potential conflicts over claims to sovereignty to portions of the continent, in 1959 the 12 nations with interests in Antarctica at the time[iv] negotiated and signed the Antarctic Treaty. Rather than divide up the continent into areas of national jurisdiction, the treaty sets up shared sovereignty among the Parties over the continent and reserves the entire continent for peaceful purposes, including scientific investigation and cooperation, which has prompted the establishment of dozens of scientific research stations. Since 1959, more than 50 countries have become Party to the treaty and several follow-on treaties have been negotiated to protect the Antarctic environment.[v] As in the Arctic, climate change is causing Antarctic glaciers and sea ice to melt at alarming rates, adversely affecting endemic and other species (e.g., krill, penguins, seals and whales) and posing a threat to coastal communities around the globe due to sea level rise.
i Available at https://oaarchive.arctic-council.org/handle/11374/531
ii Available at https://oaarchive.arctic-council.org/handle/11374/529.
iii Hannah Hoag, Nations agree to ban fishing in Arctic Ocean for at least 16 years, Science (Dec. 1, 2017), http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/12/nations-agree-ban-fishing-arctic-ocean-least-16-years.
iv Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States.
v See, e.g., Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (1972); Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (1982); Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (1998).
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Peace Palace Library
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- Contains bibliographies of current references and other linkages, provides access to other databases, and links to other sites that deal with similar subject matter.
- Relates to: Antarctic & Arctic
Library of Congress
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- Relates to: Antarctic
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HEIN Online: World Treaty Library
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- Treaties, articles, and acts related to the subject matter.
- Relates to: Antarctic & Arctic