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UNCLOS institutions
The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea created three international organizations relevant to ocean governance, the International Seabed Authority in Kingston, Jamaica, (which administers the resources of the Area), the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf at UN Headquarters in New York, (which decides on States’submissions to extend their continental shelves) and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany, (which is available to States to adjudicate disputes arising out the interpretation and application of UNCLOS).
The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) was created by UNCLOS to provide recommendations to coastal States regarding the establishment of the outer limits of their continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. A body of 21 commissioners, experts in the fields of geology, geophysics and hydrography, make up the Commission. They are elected by States Parties to the Convention with due regard to the need to ensure equitable geographical representation. The Commission sits at UN Headquarters in New York.
UNCLOS sets the limit of the continental shelf at 200 nautical miles - even if a coastal State has no physical continental shelf or if its shelf ends short of this distance. If a coastal State's continental shelf extends with a natural prolongation beyond this limit, article 76 of the Convention comes into play: coastal States may extend their continental shelf from 200 up to 350 nautical miles if certain geomorphologic, distance and depth conditions can be ascertained. Evidence supporting the existence of these conditions needs to be submitted to the Commission, which establishes sub-commissions to review each request. Requests for further scientific evidence may be made by the Commission before they make their final recommendation. A list of all submissions received to date may be seen here.
The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is an autonomous international organization established under UNCLOS and the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of UNCLOS to administer the resources of the Area, the seabed and ocean floor beyond national jurisdiction. The ISA, with its seat in Kingston, Jamaica, has the two-track mandate to both organize all mineral-resource-related activities in the Area "for the benefit of (hu)mankind as a whole" (for more information on this activity see ocean resources) and to ensure the effective protection of the marine environment from any harmful effects that may arise from deep-seabed related activities. In this it answers to the States Parties to UNCLOS. The ISA distributes licences to States to exploit resources in the Area. One of the main tasks the ISA is currently working on is the drafting of a mining code, a comprehensive set of rules, regulations and procedures to regulate prospecting, exploration and exploitation of marine minerals in the Area.
According to the ISA website, the aim of the exploitation regulations is "to balance economic needs with rigorous environmental protection. Once in place, the regulations will require any entity planning to undertake activities in the international seabed area to abide by stringent global environmental requirements. The regime to be established also requires a portion of the financial rewards and other economic benefits from mining to be paid to ISA to then be shared according to 'equitable sharing criteria'". In this way, all States Parties should share in the benefits of the Area.
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), an independent judicial institution with 21 judges, is based in Hamburg, Germany. ITLOS was created by UNCLOS to adjudicate any disputes arising out of the interpretation of either UNCLOS or any other agreement relating to the law of the sea which confers jurisdiction upon it, thereby making it possible for a large variety of issues to be brought before it, such as delimitation, shipping, resource exploitation or management, protection of the marine environment, marine scientific research or the laying of cables or pipelines. Other agreements which include the Tribunal as a means for dispute resolution can be international (such as the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing or the IMO Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter), regional (such as the Agreement to prevent unregulated high seas fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean) or bilateral (for example the Agreement between the Government of Barbados and the Government of Saint Lucia on the Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Barbados and Saint Lucia).
The jurisdiction of the Tribunal encompasses both contentious jurisdiction, involving a dispute between two States or entities and leading to a binding decision of the Tribunal with which the parties must comply, and advisory jurisdiction, where a legal question is put to the Tribunal or the Seabed Disputes Chamber and a non-binding opinion issued.
To date the Tribunal has pronounced upon contentious disputes involving the delimitation of maritime zones, fisheries, navigation and the marine environment and issued advisory opinions on IUU fisheries, seabed mining and climate change. In relation to the protection and preservation of the marine environment, the Land Reclamation case between Malaysia and Singapore, the MOX Plant case between Ireland and the United Kingdom and all three Advisory Opinions are of particular note.
ITLOS photo