Establishment of the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf: Is Crossing Boundaries Trespassing?

This article examines whether State A may cross a continental shelf boundary in order to utilize a feature of the physical continental margin that is situated within the dominion of State B for the purpose of establishing the outer limits of its continental shelf. Given that a continental shelf boundary delimits, mutatis mutandis, the spatial powers of States, as a land boundary, in conjunction with the international framework as set out in the Law of the Sea Convention, it is concluded that it is not consistent with the Law of the Sea Convention for coastal State A to base its entitlement to the outer continental shelf on a generative feature that is located on a feature of the physical continental margin that is situated within the dominion of coastal State B.