Principles of international environmental protection - Introduction to International Environmental Law - page 94

Antarctica and the Arctic regions
The legal status of Antarctica is unique. Before the 1959 international treaty,
seven states (Norway, France, New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, Chile
and Argentina) had claimed sovereignty over parts of the continent. The Cold
War parties, the USA and the Soviet Union, had also established scientifi c
research stations in the area. Neither of them staked their own claim to sover-
eignty over any of Antarctica, nor did they recognize the claims made by the
seven aforementioned states.
The United States took the initiative to begin treaty negotiations in an
attempt to settle the diffi cult situation, resulting in the Antarctic Treaty, by
which the sovereignty claims of the states were 'frozen': under the terms of
the treaty, nothing the states did or said would be considered relevant to
either substantiating a claim or renouncing it. This 'agreement to disagree'
made it possible to administer Antarctica and the surrounding Southern
Ocean internationally through the Antarctic Treaty 10 and the Antarctic
Treaty Consultative Meetings (ATCM). The key aims of this administrative
system are to demilitarize the area and to declare it as a zone of peace and
science.
I became familiar with the Antarctic Treaty and the administrative system that
had evolved around it for the fi rst time when I was working on my doctoral
dissertation. It seemed amazing that the seven states that had claimed segments
of Antarctica were prepared to suspend their claim (most states do not recognize
any of these claims).
Without this treaty, at least seven different states would have had the power
to decide what could be done in each part of Antarctica and under what rules.
Moreover, being coastal states, they would also potentially have a claim to 200
nautical miles of exclusive economic zones and rights to explore and exploit
their Antarctic continental shelves. The treaty has granted the world an incred-
ible ice-covered continent dedicated to science and nature conservation, where
mining is also now prohibited.
The Antarctic Treaty System is continually expanding. Any state that
conducts a full research operation in the region can be admitted as a
consultative party of the Antarctic Treaty. 11 Related agreements include
the conventions regulating seal hunting and fi sheries resources in the
Southern Ocean 12 and the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to
the Antarctic Treaty (Madrid Protocol). 13 All these agreements and the
international bodies that administer them constitute the Antarctic Treaty
System (ATS).
One of the notable successes of the system of governance in Antarctica is
that the full consultative members of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative