Law of The Sea
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states, “Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.”
The convention was ratified by all four states in dispute over the Rockall Plateau – Iceland on 26 January 1985, Ireland on 21 January 1996, the United Kingdom on 25 July 1997 and Denmark on 16 November 2004.
The twenty-fourth session of the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) was held in New York from 10 August to 11 September 2009. Iceland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom have made submissions. Denmark will make a submission before 2014.
On 7 November 1988 the United Kingdom and Ireland agreed a delineation which ignores Rockall's existence and have granted exploration rights. This bilateral agreement is disputed by Iceland and by Denmark.
In 1997, the UK Government declared that "The United Kingdom's fishery limits will need to be redefined based on St Kilda, since Rockall is not a valid base point for such limits under Article 121(3) of the Convention". This is the only example to date of a state voluntarily downgrading an insular feature to "a rock" and thus reducing the area of its claimed maritime zones.
Read more about this topic: Rockall
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