Antarctic sovereignty and co-operation: the need for reconsideration

The discussion on sovereignty in the Antarctic continent has traditionally been dominated by the question of territorial claims and the procedures for making such claims, and by the way in which the requirements of effective occupation are fulfilled. This is adequate for the needs of a period in which territorial rivalries and the other positions that have been considered competed for control of the system of organization that was applied to the Antarctic continent.

However, the development that has taken place over the last twenty-five years has highlighted two cardinal elements. The first is that, in spite of the many existing difficulties, sovereignty has become an established fact in the Antarctic. But this is so only in a relative sense, since simultaneously there has also been the development of the second basic element, consisting in a powerful framework of international co-operation in Antarctica. The fundamental link between these two elements has been Article IV of the Antarctic Treaty, which by freezing formal claims to sovereignty and not prejudging on the issue has made possible the strengthening of the process of co-operation in the region. As was pointed out earlier, sovereignty has become inseparable from co-operation in the Antarctic since it would be difficult to maintain sovereignty unless it were closely linked with the factor of co-operation.