New Problems—Old Solutions

Abstract

The verdict in 1933 by the Permanent International Court of Justice in the so-called ‘Eastern Greenland Case’ brought to the fore the dilemma of adapting the traditional sovereignty concept to the novel political/legal problems characterizing the ‘new territories’. With the opening up of other ‘new territories’ for exploration and subsequent exploitation, this dilemma has grown ever more acute in recent years.

This chapter highlights some general regulation problems in ‘new territories’, gives a description of attempts made to solve such problems in the past, and identifies the key elements in the various ‘solution models’ (notably the Svalbard Treaty, the Antarctic Treaty and the Continental Shelf Convention). These elements are described and analysed comparatively, with a certain emphasis on the somewhat divergent preconditions prevalent in the three separate examples. In the final section, the authors proceed to discuss the applicability of the old solution models to the present and emerging regulation problems in the new territories.