player in international ocean negotiations and law-making. To start with, reference
ought to be done to the country’s participation in international negotiations for
current binding and non-binding oceanic instruments. Here, Brazil has played a
proactive role in shaping the contemporary law of the sea, with emphasis on its
participation in international negotiations and promulgation of international binding
and non-binding instruments during the second half of the twentieth century. The
great number of international instruments regarding maritime activities signed and
ratified by the Brazilian state suggests the country’s dedication to the international
rule of law applied to oceans.
Another reason for selecting Brazil as the target of a case study stems from the
fact that the environmental governance of the Brazilian continental shelf has earned
the spotlight in the wake of the 2009 CLCS recommendation acknowledging
Brazilian sovereign rights over a large portion of the seabed of the South Atlantic
Ocean beyond 200 nm. Such recognition has raised questions, inter alia, as to the
adequateness of existing domestic rules and regulations to manage—in the sense of
protecting and exploiting—such submarine universe. Studies within the country
have revealed the abundance of marine life abounds in several parts of the Brazilian
continental shelf, within and beyond the claimed 200 nm.
31 The conservation of
fragile ecosystems, as the seamounts neighboring the Atlantic islands of Trindade
and Martim Vaz, or the coral reefs off the Amazon river delta, in the Northern cone
of Brazil, have inspired this research and the need for regulating the management
and uses of the continental shelf, so that the national ecological patrimony does not
vanish by virtue of inadequate domestic laws and policies, nor deficient
enforcement.
1.3 Problemfelder
Despite the apparent “glut” on legal continental shelf-related investigations,
suggested by the reduced number of recent publications on that topic in comparison
with the early 2000s, the legal regime of the continental shelf has still not been
entirely understood, in particular the environmental jurisdiction of coastal states in
the portion of the seabed beyond 200 nm. This work assumes, thus, an original and
necessary character for several reasons. For one, it is never too late to discuss the
complex interaction between law of the sea and environmental law in the
overlapping zones of the continental shelf, the high seas and the Area. Secondly,
the likelihood of exploitation activities on the outer continental shelf has never been
31 The project Atlas Mar, of the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE) has pinned
several entries of marine life around the seamounts of Martim Vaz e Trindade, as well as in the
Vitoria-Trindade Chain and the Northern Amazonas Cone, portions of the seafloor that Brazil
claims to pertain to the country’s continental shelf, but which have been rejected by the CLCS
following the first Brazilian submission. See IBGE, Atlas geográfico das zonas costeiras e
oceânicas do Brasil. Available at: http://www.atlasmar.ibge.gov.br/ Accessed 30 March 2020.
8
1 Introduction: Setting the Stage
ought to be done to the country’s participation in international negotiations for
current binding and non-binding oceanic instruments. Here, Brazil has played a
proactive role in shaping the contemporary law of the sea, with emphasis on its
participation in international negotiations and promulgation of international binding
and non-binding instruments during the second half of the twentieth century. The
great number of international instruments regarding maritime activities signed and
ratified by the Brazilian state suggests the country’s dedication to the international
rule of law applied to oceans.
Another reason for selecting Brazil as the target of a case study stems from the
fact that the environmental governance of the Brazilian continental shelf has earned
the spotlight in the wake of the 2009 CLCS recommendation acknowledging
Brazilian sovereign rights over a large portion of the seabed of the South Atlantic
Ocean beyond 200 nm. Such recognition has raised questions, inter alia, as to the
adequateness of existing domestic rules and regulations to manage—in the sense of
protecting and exploiting—such submarine universe. Studies within the country
have revealed the abundance of marine life abounds in several parts of the Brazilian
continental shelf, within and beyond the claimed 200 nm.
31 The conservation of
fragile ecosystems, as the seamounts neighboring the Atlantic islands of Trindade
and Martim Vaz, or the coral reefs off the Amazon river delta, in the Northern cone
of Brazil, have inspired this research and the need for regulating the management
and uses of the continental shelf, so that the national ecological patrimony does not
vanish by virtue of inadequate domestic laws and policies, nor deficient
enforcement.
1.3 Problemfelder
Despite the apparent “glut” on legal continental shelf-related investigations,
suggested by the reduced number of recent publications on that topic in comparison
with the early 2000s, the legal regime of the continental shelf has still not been
entirely understood, in particular the environmental jurisdiction of coastal states in
the portion of the seabed beyond 200 nm. This work assumes, thus, an original and
necessary character for several reasons. For one, it is never too late to discuss the
complex interaction between law of the sea and environmental law in the
overlapping zones of the continental shelf, the high seas and the Area. Secondly,
the likelihood of exploitation activities on the outer continental shelf has never been
31 The project Atlas Mar, of the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE) has pinned
several entries of marine life around the seamounts of Martim Vaz e Trindade, as well as in the
Vitoria-Trindade Chain and the Northern Amazonas Cone, portions of the seafloor that Brazil
claims to pertain to the country’s continental shelf, but which have been rejected by the CLCS
following the first Brazilian submission. See IBGE, Atlas geográfico das zonas costeiras e
oceânicas do Brasil. Available at: http://www.atlasmar.ibge.gov.br/ Accessed 30 March 2020.
8
1 Introduction: Setting the Stage