Page 343 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

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SUBMARINE BOUNDARIES 279
The proclamations issued by the Gulf Shaikhdoms, under British
auspices, arc all similar, if not identical. In issuing them, the Rulers
were, no doubt, encouraged by the great hopes of the existence of
great oil deposits beneath the high sea waters of the Gulf. In order to
form a clear view about the main issues involved in these proclama­
tions, the following operative paragraphs of the Bahrain Proclamation
may be quoted, as an example:
. . . Whereas the right of any coastal government to exercise its sove­
reignty over the natural resources of the sea-bed and the sub-soil in the
vicinity of its shores has been established by international practice through
the action taken by other governments . . .
We ... the Ruler of Bahrain hereby declare that the sea-bed and the
sub-soil of the high seas of the Persian Gulf bordering on the territorial
waters of Bahrain and extending seaward as far as limits that we, after
consultation with neighbouring governments, shall determine more accur­
ately in accordance with the principles of justice, when the occasion so
requires, belong to the country of Bahrain and are subject to its absolute
authority and jurisdiction.1
The above proclamations represented at the time a new development
of claims to large portions of the sea-bed and sub-soil of the Arabian
Gulf lying beyond the territorial seas of the countries concerned.2
(a) Common features of the Proclamations of 1949
The Proclamations of the Arabian Gulf States of 1949, have the follow­
ing characteristics in common: (a) They all seem to avoid the use of
the expression ‘continental shelf’ which does not stricto sensu exist
in the Arabian Gulf which is a shallow sea of much less than 100
fathoms deep.3 Accordingly, they uniformly regard the contiguity of
the sea-bed and sub-soil of the high sea areas to the territorial seas of
the littoral States concerned as the basis of the claims asserted.4 In
contrast, it should be noted that the Iranian draft legislation of 1949.
which was passed as a law on 19 June 1955,5 refers to the Persian
1 For the English text of the Proclamation of Bahrain No. 37/1368, 5 June 1949,
sec A.J.I.L., Suppl. 43 (1949), pp. 185-6. See also Appendix IX.
3 See Young, R., ‘Further Claims to Areas Beneath the High Seas*, A.J.I.L., 43
(1949), p. 790, where he maintains that the claims thus asserted ‘represent a further
development along somewhat divergent lines of the continental shelf doctrine
enunciated by the United States in 1945’.
3 See R. Young’s commentary on ‘Saudi Arabian Offshore Legislation’, A.J.I.L.
43 (1949), p. 531.
4 See Young, R., ‘The Legal Status of Submarine Areas Beneath the High Seas’,
A.J.I.L., 45 (1951), p. 239, where he states that ‘it has been suggested that the most
satisfactory basis for the claims is to regard submarine areas as appurtenant to the
contiguous coastal state in a manner analogous to the appurtenance of territorial
waters’.
5 For the French text of the Iranian Law on the continental shelf, see U.N.L.S.,
High Seas (1957) p. 25.