Study On The Issues Of Delimiting Outer Continental Shelf In The Arctic Seas

With the environmental revulsion caused by the global warming, the Arctic region began to show its attractive strategic potential and prospects to the people of this world while no longer being bitterly cold. Each country strengthened the concern and was fighting for the reign that was once far from people’s attention. A series of complex controversies started to emerge. Meanwhile, the surrounded Arctic countries launched intensive negotiation and coordination on the Arctic affairs and were intended to build up a political and legal order which is not open for other countries in this world and can satisfy their interests to the largest extent. All these made the Arctic situation confused and complicated. The Outer Continental Shelf system stipulated by the UNCLOS provided the legal possibilities for the surrounded Arctic countries to publicly extend their demands for interest and then to occupy the Arctic region. Therefore it has already become the core issue of the arctic dispute. Russia and Norway has already submitted the application for delimitation of Outer Continental Shelf of Arctic Seas to the CLCS, while Canada, United States and Denmark are finding evidence for their claims for Outer Continental Shelf in the various forms of expedition surveys as well.The dispute on the delimitation of Outer Continental Shelf of Arctic Seas are not only directly related to the ownership of utilizing and making use of the rich resources in the Arctic, but also the confirmation of the size of the international seabed area in the Arctic seas. All these are related to the interests of a large number of non-Arctic countries in the international society. What’s more, the concept that the Arctic and Antarctic are the common property of mankind is widely recognized in the world. Therefore, the Arctic region should by no means be the closed ""back yard" divided up by the surrounded Arctic countries. The Arctic issue is not simply regional, but a major international one. All countries around the world have the rights to express their opinion and participate in the Arctic affairs. In other words, China also has increasingly important national interests and extensive strategic needs in the Arctic region. The changes of the Arctic situation are closely linked with China’s future development. So no matter from any perspective of which, China are unlikely to neglect the Arctic issue.China needs to increase involvement in the Arctic affairs. Meanwhile the educational groups of the international law should strengthen research on this matter to provide corresponding suggestions for our country to cope with the increasingly fierce geopolitical competition in this region. The paper’s real sense is also on this point.The paper which has six chapters is divided into three parts:the preface, the body part made up by4chapters and the conclusion. Chapter1is the preface part and mainly outlines the relevant circumstance of the Arctic and the Arctic seas. In the part of research background, it emphasizes the importance of the Arctic problem and the significant impacts on the international community, which may caused by the tremendous changes the Arctic is going through. The preface part will also introduce the current conditions, ideas and methods of the research in turn.The body part is from chapter2to chapter5. Chapter2examines the complicated Arctic issues from the perspective of international law, then integrates and classifies them, and further points out that the delimitation of the outer continental shelf of the Arctic seas is the core issue of all the disputes on the Arctic area.Chapter3will academically elaborate the Outer Continental Shelf system and its application to the Arctic seas. The paper here will at first briefly outlines the concept of the continental shelf and its legal status and points out that the jurisprudence of the Outer Continental Shelf system is based on the United Nations-Convention on the Law of the Sea (hereinafter referred to as the UNCLOS). Then, the paper will outline the specific criteria to demarcate the boundary of the Outer Continental Shelf in the UNCLOS. This chapter focuses on the analysis of the effects of the Outer Continental Shelf system’s application to the Arctic seas. This research argues that the Outer Continental Shelf applied to the Arctic seas will greatly erode the international seabed areas, but the defects of the existing international law system will be hard to prevent the application of this system to the Arctic seas.Chapter4will comment on the main controversial issues of the delimitation of Outer Continental Shelf in the Arctic seas and discuss the relevant legal factors that will influence the applications for the delimitation of Outer Continental Shelf from the Arctic countries, while specially analyzing their different effects. In the second research path, the paper will elaborate the current situation of delimitation of Outer Continental Shelf within the Arctic countries and some disputes on it, meanwhile introduce the latest progress of the issue.Chapter5will firstly provide the specific speculations and suggestions for solving the delimitation problem of Outer Continental Shelf in the Arctic seas. Then it expounds China’s principle and position on the relevant problems, pointing out that China should play a constructive role in the dispute of the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf delimitation. In the end, this matter should be properly resolved through the promotion of effective legal or other political and diplomatic channels, and the legitimate interests of China and the majority of non-Arctic countries on Arctic issues should be safeguarded.Finally, the conclusions will be summarized at the end part of chapter6and a further study stimulated by this paper can be expected in the fields of our colleagues in the international law.