SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES IN A NON-HOMOLOGATED EXTENDED CONTINENTAL SHELF
Law of the Sea; Extended continental shelf; Settlement of disputes; Jurisdiction.
Since mineral resources are increasingly scarce, interest in the exploration of the seabed and its subsoil has been increasing, provoking a race for the sovereignty of parts of the ocean, such as the continental shelf, which is the submerged portion of the planet's crust characterized for being a natural extension of the emerged territory. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), whose genesis was precisely the concern to discipline the use of the mineral wealth of the seabed, takes care to regulate all aspects of the Law of the Sea, establishing a legal framework regarding the delimitation and conceptualization of maritime spaces and paying special attention to the discipline of exploration and prospecting of its economic resources. To this end, UNCLOS designed institutions necessary for its implementation: the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), the latter being a UN technical body responsible for analyzing submissions from coastal States related to the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond the beacons prefixed by the UNCLOS’ text, thus advancing on the ocean floor region originally located outside national jurisdictions and defined by the Convention, together with its resources, as a common heritage of mankind. Through conducting exploratory and descriptive research, with the application of the logical-deductive method and having as sources the survey and analysis of documents and authoritative bibliography, in addition to the study of cases, this work gives an overview of the evolution of the Law of the Sea, emphasizing its economic dimension and its codification process, then examining the UNCLOS and the dispute settlement system established by it, finally proposing to analyze the problem of the competent jurisdiction to settle disputes involving the extended continental shelf claimed by a coastal State whose submission is pending homologation by the CLCS.