2021/01/01 by Marie-Pierre Lanfranchi, Lanfranchi, Marie-Pierre
Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #International Maritime Law Issues #Arctic and Russian Policy Studies #Coastal and Marine Management
paper · doi:10.26171/carnets-oi_0714
In the Indian Ocean as in the other seas of the world, a logic of territorialization of the seabed is at work. Almost all of the riparian States have requested the extension of the continental shelf. Five of them have already notified final limits beyond the 200 nautical miles of the state’s coasts. Other applications are on hold before the Commission of the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). The mandate of the CLCS may operate in parallel with the intervention of the international judge, who has received or examined been several maritime delimitation cases in the Indian Ocean. This contribution analyzes this extensive practice, which first questions the ability of riparian States to assert their rights before the CLCS. This practice also shows that one of the key issues remains the articulation of extension claims with the rights of third countries. Here, as elsewhere, the strategies of states oscillate between the desire for conciliation and the logic of confrontation.