What is the continental shelf argument?
The negotiation team for the Australian Government is arguing that the Continental Shelf principle applies in this case. This argument rests on two assumptions – that Continental Shelf argument is still good law, and that Australia and East Timor are on different continental shelves. Unfortunately, neither of these are correct. The continental shelf principle is an outdated argument that only has one precedent world wide (Indonesia and Australia). It is not widely supported internationally where countries are less than 400 nautical miles apart. Secondly, as a matter of geology, East Timor’s entire land mass is actually part of the Australian continental shelf. There is no continental shelf break between the nations that could possibly be the basis of a boundary, even if this legal principle applied. The Australian Government claim that the Timor trough, a deep trench that runs along the ocean floor not far from East Timor’s shoreline, marks the end of the Australian continental shelf.
