The Central Arctic Ocean: Another Global Commons
| Author | J. Ashley Roach |
| Date | 01 February 2012 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-5899.2011.00149.x |
| Published date | 01 February 2012 |
The Central Arctic Ocean: Another
Global Commons
J. Ashley Roach
1
Captain, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, US Navy (retired),
formerly of the Office of the Legal Adviser, US Department of State (retired)
The Central Arctic Ocean, meaning the high seas area of
the Arctic Ocean, is a global commons just as are the
high seas areas of the other oceans. This commentary
explains.
The Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is one of the five oceans of the world,
albeit the smallest. However, it measures North to South
from Khreber Cherskogo, Russia to Greenland about
1500 nautical miles,
2
and east to west from Svalbard to
the Bering Strait about 2000 nautical miles, or about
5,427,000 square miles (14,056,000 square kilometers).
3
Like all the other oceans, it is bordered by land, the five
Arctic circumpolar countries: Russia, the United States of
America, Canada, Greenland (Denmark) and Norway. In
the west the Bering Strait forms the chokepoint between
the Arctic and the Pacific Ocean. In the east, there are a
number of sea routes connecting the Arctic with the
Barents Sea.
Maritime Zones in the Arctic Ocean
Like all other oceans, maritime zones of the five littoral
states in the Arctic Ocean are measured from their coast-
lines:
•a territorial sea of no more than 12 miles in breadth
over which the coastal state exercises sovereignty,
including the airspace over the territorial sea and the
seabed and subsoil beneath the territorial sea.
4
•an exclusive economic zone (water column and sea-
bed and subsoil) of no more than 200 miles in
breadth in which the coastal state exercises certain
rights and has jurisdiction less than full sovereignty.
These are sovereign rights for the purpose of explor-
ing and exploiting, conserving and managing the
natural resources, whether living or nonliving, of the
waters superjacent to the seabed and of the seabed
and its subsoil, and with regard to other activities for
the economic exploitation and exploration of the
zone, such as the production of energy from the
water currents and winds, and jurisdiction provided
for in the Law of the Sea Convention with regard to
the establishment and use of artificial islands, installa-
tions and structures, to marine scientific research,
and to the protection and preservation of the marine
environment, as well as other fights and duties pro-
vided in the Convention.
5
•the continental shelf comprising the seabed and sub-
soil of the submarine areas that extend beyond the
territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of
the land territory to the outer edge of the continen-
tal margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from
the coastline where the outer edge of the continental
margin does not extend up to that distance.
6
The Global Commons in the Arctic Ocean
The global commons is the high seas and the seabed
and subsoil beyond these limits of national jurisdiction.
In and over the high seas all states have the freedom of
the high seas, which comprises:
•the freedoms of navigation and overflight.
•the freedom to lay and maintain submarine cables
and pipelines subject to the rules pertaining to the
continental shelf.
•the freedom to construct artificial islands and other
installations permitted under international law, sub-
ject to the rules pertaining to the continental shelf.
•freedom of fishing, subject to the rules of interna-
tional law pertaining to high seas fishing and to
straddling stocks and highly migratory fish stocks.
•freedom of scientific research, subject to the rules
pertaining to the continental shelf and marine scien-
tific research.
7
The freedom of the high seas is exercised by all states
with due regard for the interests of other states in their
Global Policy Volume 3 . Issue 1 . February 2012
ª2012 London School of Economics and Political Science and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Global Policy (2012) 3:1 doi: 10.1111/j.1758-5899.2011.00149.x
Special Section: Practitioner Commentary
82
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