Link
to text of agreement
Status
of agreement
| Basic information |
| Date of adoption | 29 April 1958 |
| Place of adoption | Geneva, Switzerland |
| Entry into force | 10 June 1964 |
| Authentic text(s) | Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish |
| Associated instruments | 1982 Law of the Sea Convention |
| Summary of provisions |
Objectives
To establish a general regime for the continental shelf, including the extent of claims and the applicable rules.
Scope
- Material (living resources)
Sedentary species
- Geographic
Global (continental shelf).
Organizational mechanism
None. The Secretary-General of the United Nations acts as Depositary.
| Description of agreement |
The Convention on the Continental Shelf was one of the four Conventions on the law of the sea adopted at the First United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS I) in Geneva in 1958. The Convention provided a legal definition of the "continental shelf", meaning (a) the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas adjacent to the coast but outside the area of the territorial sea, to a depth of 200 metres or, beyond that limit, to where the depth of the superjacent waters admits of the exploitation of the natural resources of those areas; and (b) the seabed and subsoil of similar submarine areas adjacent to the coasts of islands. Article 2 establishes the principle that the coastal State may exercise sovereign rights over the continental shelf for the purpose of exploring it and exploiting its natural resources, which include both non-living resources and living organisms belonging to sedentary species, meaning "organisms which, at the harvestable stage, either are immobile on or under the seabed or are unable to move except in constant physical contact with the seabed or the subsoil". The Convention establishes certain conditions for the exercise of these sovereign rights (including the principle that the exploitation of the natural resources of the continental shelf must not result in any unjustifiable interference with navigation, fishing or the conservation of the living resources of the sea) and rules for the delimitation of continental shelf areas between opposite and adjacent States.
| Further information and references |
- Bibliographic references
R.R. Churchill and A.V. Lowe, The Law of the Sea (Manchester University Press, 1999, 3rd ed.), Chapter 8
G. Fitzmaurice, 'Some Results of the Geneva Conference on the Law of the Sea', 8 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 73 (1959) L.F.E. Goldie, 'Sedentary Fisheries and Article 2(4) of the Continental Shelf Convention', 63 American Journal of International Law (1969)
- Related instruments
Convention on Fishing and Conservation of the Living Resources of the High Seas
Convention on the High Seas
Convention on the Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone
- Additional treaty references
499 UNTS 311; TIAS 5578; 1964 UKTS 39; 1963 ATS 12