Sovereignty over Land and Sea in the Arctic Area
| Autor | Tullio Scovazzi |
| Cargo | Professor of International Law, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy |
| Páginas | 169-196 |
Sovereignty over Land and Sea in the Arctic Area
Tullio Scovazzi*
A
e paper reviews the claims over land and waters in the Arctic area. While almost all the
disputes over land have today been settled, several questions relating to law of the sea are still
pending. ey regard straight baselines, navigation in ice-covered areas, transit through inter-
national straits, the outer limit of the continental shelf beyond 200 n.m. and delimitation of
the exclusive economic zone between opposite or adjacent States.
Keywords: straight baselines, navigation in ice-covered areas, transit passage in international
straits, external limit of the continental shelf, exclusive economic zone
La soberanía sobre tierra y mar en el área ártica
R
El artículo examina los reclamos sobre el suelo y las aguas en el Ártico.
Mientras que casi todas las disputas sobre el suelo han sido resueltas al día de hoy, aún quedan
pendientes muchas cuestiones relativas al derecho del mar. Ellas están referidas a las líneas
de base rectas, la navegación en las zonas cubiertas de hielo, el paso en tránsito en estrechos
internacionales, el límite externo de la plataforma continental más allá de las 200 millas náu-
ticas, y la delimitación de la zona económica exclusiva entre Estados adyacentes u opuestos.
Palabras clave: Líneas de base rectas, navegación en zonas cubiertas de hielo, paso en tránsito
en los estrechos internacionales, límite externo de la plataforma continental, zona económica
exclusiva.
* Professor of International Law, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy. tullio.scovazzi@unimib.it
Agenda Internacional
Año XXIII N° 34, 2016, pp. 169-196
ISSN 1027-6750
170 Tullio Scovazsi
Agenda Internacional, XXIII (34) 2016
1. Introduction
is article aims at briey reviewing a number of questions relating to the interna-
tional regime of the Arctic area. Most of them regard the law of the sea and include
several important issues, such as straight baselines (Art. 7 of the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea, adopted in Montego Bay in 1982; UNCLOS),
navigation in ice-covered waters (Art. 234), transit through straits (Arts. from 34 to
44), the outer limit of the continental shelf beyond 200 n.m. (Art. 76), delimitation
of exclusive economic zones (Arts. 74 and 83)1. is makes a quite complex picture
from the legal point of view.
2. Questions of Sovereignty over Land
e major issues of land sovereignty in the Arctic region have been settled in the
rst half of the twentieth century2. e treaty concerning the Archipelago of Spitz-
bergen (Paris, 1920) granted to Norway the sovereignty over the Spitzbergen archi-
pelago, called also Svalbard3. On 5 April 1933 the Permanent Court of International
Justice decided the dispute between Denmark and Norway on the legal status of
Eastern Greenland, recognizing the sovereignty of Denmark over it. e Court took
into account «the Arctic and inaccessible character of the uncolonized parts of the
country» (PCJI, 1933: 50) and the legislation on hunting and shing adopted by
Denmark. It found that
[…] these acts, coupled with the activities of the Danish hunting expeditions which
were supported by the Danish Government, the increase in the number of scien-
tic expeditions engaged in mapping and exploring the country with the authoriza-
tion and encouragement of the Government, even though the expeditions may have
been organized by nonocial institutions, the occasions on which the Godthaab, a
vessel belonging to the State and placed at one time under the command of a naval
ocer, was sent to the East coast on inspection duty, the issue of permits by the
Danish authorities, under regulations issued in 1930, to persons visiting the eastern
coast of Greenland, show to a sucient extent —even when separated from the his-
tory of the preceding periods— the two elements necessary to establish a valid title
1 With the exception of Art. 234, this paper will not elaborate on the content of these provisions and their inter-
pretation. e knowledge of Arctic geography is also implied.
2
On the questions considered in this paper, see in general: Pharand, 1973; Brigham, 1991; Franckx, 1993; Byers, 2013.
3 Art. 1: «e High Contracting Parties undertake to recognise, subject to the stipulations of the present Treaty,
the full and absolute sovereignty of Norway over the Archipelago of Spitsbergen, comprising, with Bear Island or
Beeren-Eiland, all the islands situated between 10° and 35° longitude East of Greenwich and between 74° and 81°
latitude North, especially West Spitsbergen, North-East Land, Barents Island, Edge Island, Wiche Islands, Hope
Island or Hopen-Eiland, and Prince Charles Foreland, together with all islands great or small and rocks appertaining
thereto.
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