Antarctica

Official claims to sectors of the ice-covered continent of Antarctica were made by seven
States – Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom. A
sector was also claimed by Admiral Byrd on behalf of the United States, but the United States
never officially adopted Byrd’s claim, and refused to recognize the claims of the six claimant
States. In 1959 the seven claimant States, together with 5 other States whose scientists had
been conducting research in Antarctica (Belgium, Japan, South Africa, the United States and the
USSR) entered into the Antarctic Treaty. The Antarctic Treaty “froze” the claims of the seven
claimant States, and stated that no new claims to sovereignty would be made. It also stated that
Antarctica should be used only for peaceful purposes. The Antarctic Treaty permits States
parties to conduct scientific research in Antarctica and its provisions are generally respected by
non-party States as customary law.

Treaties

Include:

• Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, Multilateral, Canberra, May 20, 1980
• Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty on Environmental Protection, Multilateral, Madrid, Oct 4, 1991
• The Antarctic Treaty

The Antarctic Treaty Last Articles

Note: see more about the the Antarctic Treaty here.

Article IX

1. Representatives of the Contracting Parties named in the preamble to
the present Treaty shall meet at the City of Canberra within two months
after the date of entry into force of the Treaty, and thereafter at
suitable intervals and places, for the purpose of exchanging information,
consulting together on matters of common interest pertaining to
Antarctica, and formulating and considering, and recommending to their
Governments, measures in furtherance of the principles and objectives of
the Treaty, including measures regarding:

a) use of Antarctica for peaceful purposes only;
b) facilitation of scientific research in Antarctica;
c) facilitation of international scientific cooperation in Antarctica;
d) facilitation of the exercise of the rights of inspection provided
for in Article VII of the Treaty;
e) questions relating to the exercise of jurisdiction in Antarctica;
f) preservation and conservation of living resources in Antarctica.

2. Each Contracting Party which has become a party to the present Treaty
by accession under Article XIII shall be entitled to appoint
representatives to participate in the meetings referred to in paragraph 1
of the present Article, during such time as that Contracting Party
demonstrates its interest in Antarctica by conducting substantial
scientific research activity there, such as the establishment of a
scientific station or the despatch of a scientific expedition.

3. Reports from the observers referred to in Article VII of the present
Treaty shall be transmitted to the representatives of the Contracting
Parties participating in the meetings referred to in paragraph 1 of the
present Article.

4. The measures referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall become
effective when approved by all the Contracting Parties whose
representatives were entitled to participate in the meetings held to
consider those measures.

5. Any or all of the rights established in the present Treaty may be
exercised as from the date of entry into force of the Treaty whether or
not any measures facilitating the exercise of such rights have been
proposed, considered or approved as provided in this Article.

Article X

Each of the Contracting Parties undertakes to exert appropriate efforts
consistent with the Charter of the United Nations , to the end that no one
engages in any activity in Antarctica contrary to the principles or
purposes of the present Treaty.

Article XI

1. If any dispute arises between two or more of the Contracting Parties
concerning the interpretation or application of the present Treaty, those
Contracting Parties shall consult among themselves with a view to having
the dispute resolved by negotiation, inquiry, mediation, conciliation,
arbitration, judicial settlement or other peaceful means of their own
choice.

2. Any dispute of this character not so resolved shall, with the consent,
in each case, of all parties to the dispute, be referred to the
International Court of Justice for settlement; but failure to reach
agreement or reference to the International Court shall not absolve
parties to the dispute from the responsibility of continuing to seek to
resolve it by any of the various peaceful means referred to in paragraph
1 of this Article.

Article XII

1. a) The present Treaty may be modified or amended at any time by
unanimous agreement of the Contracting Parties whose representatives are
entitled to participate in the meeting provided for under Article IX. Any
such modification or amendment shall enter into force when the depositary
Government has received notice from all such contracting Parties that
they have ratified it.

b) Such modification or amendment shall thereafter enter into force as
to any other Contracting Policy when notice of ratification by it has
been received by the depositary Government. Any such Contracting Party
from which no notice of ratification is received within a period of two
years from the date of entry into force of the modification or amendment
in accordance with the provisions of subparagraph 1 (a) of this Article
shall be deemed to have withdrawn from the present Treaty on the date of
the expiration of such period.

2. a) If after the expiration of thirty years from the date of entry into
force of the present Treaty, any of the Contracting Parties whose
representatives are entitled to participate in the meetings provided for
under Article IX so requests by a communication addressed to the
depositary Government, a Conference of all the Contracting Parties shall
be held as soon as practicable to review the operation of the Treaty.

b) Any modification or amendment to the present Treaty which is
approved at such a Conference by a majority of the Contracting Parties
there represented, including a majority of those whose representatives
are entitled to participate in the meetings provided for under Article
IX, shall be communicated by the depositary Government to all the
Contracting Parties immediately after the termination of the Conference
and shall enter into force in accordance with the provisions of paragraph
1 of the present Article.

c) If any such modification or amendment has not entered into force in
accordance with the provisions of subparagraph 1 (a) of this Article
within a period of two years after the date of its communication to all
the Contracting Parties, any Contracting Party may at any time after the
expiration of that period give notice to the depositary Government of its
withdrawal from the present Treaty, and such withdrawal shall take effect
two years after the receipt of the notice by the depositary Government.

Article XIII

1. The present Treaty shall be subject to ratification by the signatory
States. It shall be open for accession by any State which is a Member of
the United Nations, or by any other State which may be invited to accede
to the Treaty with the consent of all the Contracting Parties whose
representatives are entitled to participate in the meetings provided for
under Article IX of the Treaty.

2. Ratification of or accession to the present Treaty shall be effected
by each State in accordance with its constitutional processes.

3. Instruments of ratification and instruments of accession shall be
deposited with the Government of the United States of America, hereby
designated as the depositary Government.

4. The depositary Government shall inform all signatory and acceding
States of the date of each deposit of an instrument of ratification or
accession, and the date of entry into force of the Treaty and of any
modification or amendment thereto.

5. Upon the deposit of instruments of ratification by all the signatory
States, the present Treaty shall enter into force for these States and
for States which have deposited instruments of accession. Thereafter the
Treaty shall enter into force for any acceding State upon the deposit of
its instruments of accession.

6. The present Treaty shall be registered by the depositary Government
pursuant to Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations .

Article XIV

The present Treaty, done in the English, French, Russian and Spanish
languages, each version being equally authentic, shall be deposited in
the archives of the Government of the United States of America, which
shall transmit duly certified copies thereof to the Governments of the
signatory and acceding States.

In Witness Whereof, the undersigned Plenipotentiaries, duly authorized,
have signed the present Treaty.

Done at Washington this first day of December, one thousand nine hundred
and fifty-nine.

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Charter of the United Nations, International Court of Justice, The Antarctic Treaty.

Resources

See Also

• Legal System
• Country
• Jurisdiction
• Immigration
• Consulate

Resources

Further Reading

• Thomas Willing Balch (1910), ‘The Arctic and Antarctic Regions and the Law of Nations’, American Journal of International Law, 4 (2), April, 265–75
• A.R. Clute (1927), ‘The Ownership of the North Pole’, Canadian Bar Review, V (1), January, 19–26
• John Hanessian (1960), ‘The Antarctic Treaty 1959’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 9 (3), July, 436–80
• Charles Cheney Hyde (1933–34), ‘Acquisition of Sovereignty over Polar Areas’, Iowa Law Review, 19, 286–94
• Philip C. Jessup (1947), ‘Sovereignty in Antarctica’, American Journal of International Law, 41 (1), January, 117–19
• W. Lakhtine (1930), ‘Rights over the Arctic’, American Journal of International Law, 24 (4), October, 703–17
• David M. Edwards and John A. Heap (1981), ‘Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources: A Commentary’, Polar Record, 20 (127), 353–62
• Francesco Francioni (1993), ‘The Madrid Protocol on the Protection of the Antarctic Environment’, Texas International Law Journal, 28 (193), 47–72
• Moritaka Hayashi (1986), ‘The Antarctica Question in the United Nations’, Cornell InternationalLaw Journal, 19 (2), Summer, 275–90
•  Bernard H. Oxman (1986), ‘Antarctica and the New Law of the Sea’, Cornell International Law Journal, 19 (2), Summer, 211–47
• Bruno Simma (1986), ‘The Antarctic Treaty as a Treaty Providing for an “Objective Regime”’, Cornell International Law Journal, 19 (2), Summer, 189–209
• A.D. Watts (1990), ‘The Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities 1988’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 39 (1), January, 169–82
• Emil A. Zuccaro (1979), ‘Iceberg Appropriation and the Antarctic’s Gordian Knot’, California Western International Law Journal, 9, 405–29
• Karen N. Scott (2010), ‘Managing Sovereignty and Jurisdictional Disputes in the Antarctic: The Next Fifty Years’, Yearbook of International Environmental Law, 20 (1), January, 3–40
• Kees Bastmeijer and Ricardo Roura (2004), ‘Regulating Antarctic Tourism and the Precautionary Principle’, American Journal of International Law, 98 (4), October, 763–81
• Christopher C. Joyner (2008), ‘Challenges to the Antarctic Treaty: Looking Back to See Ahead’, New Zealand Yearbook of International Law, 6, 25–62
• Ben Saul and Tim Stephens (2015), ‘Responsive Antarctic Law‐ Making in the Asian Century’, Yearbook of Polar Law, VII, 55–82
• Peter J. Beck (2017), ‘Antarctica and the United Nations’, in Klaus Dodds, Alan D. Hemmings and Peder Roberts (eds), Handbook on the Politics of Antarctica, Chapter 17, Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 255–68
• Rüdiger Wolfrum (2017), ‘Common Interest and Common Heritage in Antarctica’, in Klaus Dodds,
• Alan D. Hemmings and Peder Roberts (eds), Handbook on the Politics of Antarctica, Chapter 9, Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 142–51

Hierarchical Display of Antarctica

Environment > Natural environment > Geophysical environment > Polar region

Antarctica

Concept of Antarctica

See the dictionary definition of Antarctica.

Characteristics of Antarctica

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Resources

Translation of Antarctica

• Spanish: Antártida
• French: Antarctique
• German: Antarktis
• Italian: Antartico
• Portuguese: Antártida
• Polish: Antarktyka

Thesaurus of Antarctica

Environment > Natural environment > Geophysical environment > Polar region > Antarctica

See also

• Crop production
• Plant disease
• Fruit-growing
• Plant variety right
• Energy crop
• Viticulture
• Cereal-growing
• Horticulture
• Plant propagation
• Fodder-growing
• Floriculture
• Olive-growing
• Mushroom-growing
• Market gardening
• Arboriculture
• Self-sufficiency farming
• Oil crop
• Early fruit and vegetables
• Tropical agriculture
• Agro-industrial cropping
• Living plant
• Plant variety right

• CPVO

• Antarctic
• Antarctic continent
• South Pole