The Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf: A First Impression

Abstract

The Convention on the Continental Shelf, adopted at Geneva on April 26, 1958, by the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, represents the first great effort to determine by an act of international legislation the scope of the continental shelf doctrine in international law. The fact that the Convention was finally approved by a vote of 57 to three, with only eight abstentions, is evidence both that a need for rules on the subject was generally felt and that the rules embodied in the Convention were considered on the whole acceptable.