Trial lecture - time and place
Adjudication committee
- Professor Ole Kristian Fauchald, University of Oslo (leader)
- Pofessor Ted L. McDorman, University of Victoria (1. opponent)
- Professor Dr. Ellen Hey, Erasmus University Rotterdam (2. opponent)
Chair of defence
Director Aslak Syse, University of Oslo
Supervisors
- Professor Geir Ulfstein, University of Oslo
- Professor Davor Vidas, FNI
Summary
The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is one of the institutions established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It is composed of 21 scientific experts and shall, according to article 76 of the Convention, be involved in the process of establishing the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines.
The Commission is, however, not just an advisory expert body composed of scientists. Its functions and competences are also of eminently legal character. The Commission's main task is to interpret and apply a treaty provision, and its “recommendations" to coastal States have significant legal effects, including as means of interpretation under the rules of treaty interpretation.
However, the Law of the Sea Convention - including the Rules of Procedure of the Commission - does not contain adequate regulations concerning the Commission’s procedures and composition. For example: the Commission's decisions cannot be appealed; its members have no formal legal competence; and the proceedings are essentially taking place behind closed doors.
The main finding of this study is therefore that in several areas — from a normative and comparative perspective of legitimacy – there is a significant disparity between the Commission's functions and competence on the one hand, and its procedures and composition on the other.