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Recent developments in relations between the United Kingdom and the Argentine Republic in the South Atlantic/Antarctic region
- Klaus Dodds, Alan D. Hemmings
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- Journal:
- Polar Record / Volume 50 / Issue 2 / April 2014
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 14 January 2013, pp. 119-127
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This article assesses the current state of UK-Argentine relations with reference to the South Atlantic and Antarctic region. Three major themes are pursued: the current state of UK-Argentine relations, with the contested Falklands/Malvinas looming large in the assessment, alongside fisheries management around South Georgia; the mapping of Argentine Antarctic territory in the context of extended continental shelf delimitation; and finally, the recent UK White Paper on Overseas Territories is noted insofar as it marks the most recent public assessment of how the coalition government is attempting to manage the most southerly portions of the British Overseas Territories portfolio. The article concludes with a warning that there is a danger that worsening UK-Argentine relations might begin to have more profound implications for the Antarctic Treaty System as resource, sovereignty and territorial issues acquire more piquancy.
The extended continental shelves of sub-Antarctic Islands: implications for Antarctic governance
- Alan D. Hemmings, Tim Stephens
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- Journal:
- Polar Record / Volume 46 / Issue 4 / October 2010
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 31 March 2010, pp. 312-327
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This article considers the legal and policy issues surrounding the establishment of continental shelves beyond 200 nautical miles (nm) from sub-Antarctic islands. Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) a coastal state may establish a continental shelf that extends seawards beyond 200 nm where the continental shelf continues, normally to a total distance of no more than 350 nm. To establish such an extended continental shelf (ECS) a coastal state must file a submission of delineation data with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), a technical body established by UNCLOS.
The rights of coastal states present particular difficulties in the Antarctic Treaty area (ATA), due to the general non-recognition of the seven territorial claims and the provisions of article IV of the Antarctic Treaty. Accordingly, Antarctic claimant states are generally adopting a restrained approach to the issue of ECS as appertaining to claimed territories in Antarctica in their submissions to the CLCS. These states appear to recognise that they cannot secure the normal prerogatives of a coastal state from territorial sea baselines within the ATA, at least for the duration of the present Antarctic Treaty system (ATS). A different approach is being taken with respect of sub-Antarctic islands lying north of the ATA. Sovereignty over sub-Antarctic territory north of the ATA is, with the exception of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, not contested. Accordingly, rights in relation to any continental shelf attaching to sub-Antarctic islands may be realised, apparently without challenging the Antarctic modus vivendi.
However, the ECS of several sub-Antarctic islands penetrate the ATA. In 2008, the CLCS largely endorsed the 2004 Australian submission that included data on ECS from Australia's sub-Antarctic islands of Macquarie Island and the Heard and McDonald group. The ECS from both groups penetrates south of 60°S into the ATA, in the case of Heard and McDonald covering a huge area. Although the wider dispute regarding sovereignty between the United Kingdom and Argentina adds complexity to the case, the South Sandwich Islands are sufficiently close to the ATA that their continental shelf also penetrates the area. In the event that the CLCS were ever able to make a recommendation on a submission of data relating to the South Sandwich Islands (something that could only occur with the consent of Argentina and the United Kingdom) the result would be a situation similar to that pertaining to the Australian sub-Antarctic islands.
The consequence of these developments is that rights to seabed areas within the ATA have been assigned to individual states. On the face of it, this appears to be in conflict with the norm of collective responsibility that was established by the Antarctic Treaty 50 years ago precisely to constrain sovereignty issues in the region. What is suggested by this practice is a difference in the attitude of Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties (ATCPs) to rights generated from territory within the ATA and rights generated from external territory. Nonetheless, there may be significant implications flowing from the latter for resource issues within the ATA. Minerals exploitation on sub-Antarctic extended continental shelf within the ATA is precluded in the near-term because of cost, the formal prohibition under article 7 of the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, and the fact that all sub-Antarctic coastal states are ATCPs. However the situation in regard to other resource activities is less clear. Bioprospecting could proceed subject to coastal state approval pursuant to the provisions of UNCLOS relating to marine scientific research, and there is no mandatory regulation under the ATS. The possibility that a coastal state may seek to realise rights on the ECS in relation to genetic resources may complicate collective ATS approaches and pose wider geopolitical challenges. In the longer term, the fact that some Antarctic states are presently seeking to secure rights that are essentially about ensuring their preclusive access to resources may have significant implications for strategic interests in the greater Antarctic region.
The United States 2002 Unified Command Plan: Antarctica and the areas of responsibility of military commanders
- Klaus Dodds, Alan D. Hemmings
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- Journal:
- Polar Record / Volume 44 / Issue 2 / April 2008
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 April 2008, pp. 173-177
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In October 2002, following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, the Unified Command Plan (UCP), that sets out the geographical responsibilities of combatant commanders, was revised with regard to their areas of responsibility. Accompanying these changes was a map, which detailed the geographical boundaries of the US Northern, Pacific, Southern, European and Central Commands. The map indicated that two of these Commands, Southern and European Command stretched as far south as the Antarctic coastline while a third (Pacific) not only did that but also included the entire Antarctic continent. In 2007, a new Africa Command comprising the southern part of European Command, was instituted and this, too, stretched to the Antarctic coastline. This note briefly considers some of the implications that might follow from these changes to the UCP and highlights logistical patterns, search and rescue matters and the question of the demilitarisation of Antarctica.
28 - Access, Obligations, and Benefits: Regulating Bioprospecting in the Antarctic
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- By Alan D. Hemmings, Senior Fellow Gateway Antarctica Centre for Antarctic Studies and Research University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, Michelle Rogan-Finnemore, Centre Manager of Gateway Antarctica Centre for Antarctic Studies and Research University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
- Edited by Michael I. Jeffery, Macquarie University, Sydney, Jeremy Firestone, University of Delaware, Karen Bubna-Litic, University of Technology, Sydney
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- Book:
- Biodiversity Conservation, Law and Livelihoods: Bridging the North-South Divide
- Published online:
- 31 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 07 January 2008, pp 529-552
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Summary
The term “bioprospecting” is a relatively new one, and as yet there is no consensus on its precise legal meaning. But what it appears to cover are the range of activities associated with searching for, discovering, and researching unique biodiversity for potential commercial applications. The Antarctic region, which we will take to be the entire area south of the Antarctic Convergence, is a region containing such uniqueness. Bioprospecting has already been underway in the Antarctic for some years.
Bioprospecting in the Antarctic presents the familiar generic challenges associated with the activity anywhere. It also, however, carries with it additional and particular challenges because of the region's contested and unresolved territorial sovereignty situation, which is managed through a delicate (and itself periodically contested) form of international governance through the Antarctic Treaty System.
The principle achievements of the Antarctic Treaty System include: practical demilitarisation of the region, ensuring freedom of scientific investigation (including free availability of scientific observations and results) and the establishment of science as the currency of national presence, containing the territorial sovereignty problems, safeguarding the environment, and establishing activity-specific responses to issues (sealing, marine harvesting, minerals activities, and [currently] tourism) as they arise.