A Practical Overview of Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

The United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea, adopted in 1982, is the legal framework that sets out the rights and duties of States in the use and exploitation of the oceans. Article 76 through to article 85 in Part VI of the Convention is dedicated to provisions related to the continental shelf such as the determination and delineation of the outer limits of the extended continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles and other rights of States over the continental shelf. The determination of the foot of the continental slope is one of the major features in the establishment of the outer limits of the juridical continental shelf under Article 76 of the Convention. It is the intention through this paper to provide an overview along with the basic information for a better understanding of the key issues of article 76 of the Convention. In this attempt, the important issues in the preparation of a submission for an extended continental shelf have been addressed through a review of the numerous publications on the subject, including the Scientific and Technical Guidelines from the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. The paper first gives a brief of the history of the Convention along with the difficulties in drafting article 76 during the negotiation stage. The provisions and implications of article 76 have been discussed with the different techniques that can be used in determining the foot of the slope and addresses the various criteria and data required for determining as accurately as possible the foot of the slope including geology and geomorphology. The importance of the resources of the continental shelf in the preparation of a submission and boundary delimitations have also been addressed.