684 
APPENDIX 
After the preparation of the foregoing Report, a report of the 
National Petroleum Council, dated July 9, 1968, entitled “Petroleum 
Resources under the Ocean Floor,” became available. 
It contains the following Appendix, prepared by Oliver L. Stone, 
Chairman-Designate of the Committee on Marine Resources of the 
Section of Natural Resources Law of the American Bar Association. 
It is reprinted here not as a part of this Report, but as a matter of 
information, because of its relevance to the interpretation of the Con- 
vention on the Continental Shelf. 
REVIEW OF BACKGROUND AND NEGOTIATIONS 
LEADING TO EXECUTION OF 1958 GENEVA 
CONVENTION ON THE CONTINENTAL SHELF 
The 1958 Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf encompasses 
the “continental margin.” * 
The Convention, in article 1, defines the term “continental shelf” 
as follows: 
“For the purpose of these articles, the term ‘continental shelf’ is 
used as referring (a) to the seabed and subsoil of the sub- 
marine areas adjacent to the coast but outside the area of the 
territorial sea, to a depth of 200 metres or, beyond that limit, to 
where the depth of the superjacent waters admits of the exploitation 
of the natural resources of the said areas; (b) to the seabed and 
subsoil of similar submarine areas adjacent to the coasts of 
islands.” ** 
The definition, read in light of its history, may reasonably be inter- 
preted as encompassing the “continental margin.” *** 
* The term “continental margin” is used herein as it is defined in the report to 
which this appendix is a part. 
** The text of the definition and the preparatory work leading to its adoption 
indicate clearly that the exploitability test was not intended to extend the 
shelf regime to tmhid-ocean, but rather was intended to have some limitation 
to submerged areas reasonably “adjacent” to the coast. Evidence of this 
is revealed in the International Law Commission’s (ILC) Report of its 
8th Sess. (U.N. A/3159), pages 76-77, 81-82, hereafter cited as ILC 
Report; and in Fourth Comm. (Cont. Shelf), Off. Records, Vol. VI, U.N. 
A/Conf. 13/42, pages 3-4, 8-12, 15, 21, 24, 27, 33-35, 40, 42, 53, 55, and 
88-92, hereafter cited as Fourth Comm. Report. : 
*** Since the exploitability criterion and the adjacency test potentially permit 
extension of the shelf regime to the outer edge of the “continental margin,” 
that fact precludes all nations other than the littoral nation from asserting 
rights to shelf natural resources in this area. 
