627 
Ba 
In 1956 the International Law Commission convened its eighth 
session, a few weeks after the close of the Ciudad Trujillo conference. 
The American position won. The Commission added to its 1953 defi- 
nition (200 metres) the language proposed by the American nations, which 
extended coastal jurisdiction ''beyond that limit, to where the depth of the 
superjacent waters admits of the exploitation of the natural resources" 
of said areas. The spokesman for the 20 American nations, having won 
his point, dropped his request for specific reference to the continental ter- 
race. The official report of the session states it this way: 
", . . He did not wish to press the part of his amendment intro- 
ducing the concept of the continental terrace, since the adoption 
of the second point relating to the depth at which exploitation was 
practical would automatically bring that area within the general 
concept. "' 8 
Professors McDougal and Burke, in their definitive work, ''The 
Public Order of the Oceans," report the 1956 debate in the International 
Law Commission in this fashion: 
"Some controversy attended the suggested elimination of 
the continental shelf term and the references to the ‘continental 
and insular terrace,' but this became muted when it was realized 
that a criterion embracing both a 200-meter depth and the depth 
admitting exploitation would embrace such areas if they were in 
fact exploitable or came to be." (p. 683. ) 
The International Law Commission's 1956 report accordingly re- 
commended to the United Nations Assembly draft articles for a convention 
which would recognize coastal jurisdiction not only to 200 metres (about 
100 fathoms), but, as proposed by the American nations, ''beyond that 
limit, to where the depth of the superjacent waters admits of the exploitation 
of the natural resources of the said areas." 
The full text of the language recommended by the Commission to the 
General Assembly on this subject was contained in Article 67 of a proposed 
treaty dealing with other phases of the Law of the Sea as well as the conti- 
nental shelf. It read: 
8/ ILC Yearbook (1956), Vol. I, p. 136. 
