688 
places it in a uniquely strong position to announce its interpretation 
that the shelf regime encompasses the “continental margin.” 
Dr. Garcia-Amador, a delegate to the Ciudad Trujillo Conference, 
served thereafter as Chairman of ILC during its eighth session at which 
the definition of “continental shelf’ was revised to include the 
exploitability test along with the 200 meters criterion. His views 
undoubtedly were significant in bringing about this change. He writes 
(Garcia-Amador, The Exploitation and Conservation of the Resources 
of the Sea (2nd ed., 1959, at p. 108): 
“As we have indicated, the geographical configuration of the bed 
of the sea contiguous to the coast of continents and islands is 
sometimes so irregular that it cannot be defined in terms of the 
shelf or terrace concepts. When this is so, as in the case of some 
countries in the American continent and elsewhere, the coastal 
State may exercise the same exclusive rights now enjoyed by those 
which have a continental or insular shelf and terrace, provided 
‘the depth of the superjacent waters admit of the exploitation of 
the natural resources of the seabed and subsoil and that the 
submarine areas be adjacent to the territory of the coastal State.” 
(Emphasis added.) 
And continuing (id., p. 130): 
66 
. . States enjoy present legal powers when the submarine area 
adjacent to their territory has the configuration of a shelf, defined 
by the limit of the 100-fathom line. Potential or future powers 
would be enjoyed by them, for example, according to the system 
adopted by the International Law Commission, with respect to the 
slope and the corresponding part of the terrace, and by all coastal 
States with regard to the other submarine areas adjacent to their 
territories. . . .”. (Emphasis added.) 
At ILC’s eighth session (1956) at which consideration was being 
given to changing the definition of the continental shelf as it appeared 
in the 1953 draft (out to the 200-meter water depth line), Dr. Garcia- 
Amador proposed a definition substantially the same as that in the 
Ciudad Trujillo resolution of March 28, 1956. McDougal and Burke 
comment on this proposal as follows (The Public Order of the Oceans, 
by McDougal & Burke, p. 683): 
“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.” 
