Posuzování nároků na prodloužení kontinentálního šelfu v Arktickém oceánu a činnost Komise pro hranice kontinentálního šelfu

The bachelor thesis deals with the work of the Commission on the limits of the continental shelf regarding its considering of submissions to establish the outer limits of continental shelf in the Arctic region. As a result of climate changes, the once inaccessible areas near the North Pole are slowly being opened for the maritime transportation and for the extraction of raw materials. The Arctic states can make a submission to extend its continental shelf up to 350 nautical miles from the baselines based on the data resulting from their own survey of seabed and subsoil. Once they meet conditions indicated in the Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, they will obtain exclusive rights to extract seabed materials in this area. The institution that decides if a state meets these conditions is the Commission on the limits of the continental shelf. The aim of this work was to prove that the geopolitical significance of the Arctic has an influence on the work of the Commission. Smaller geopolitical areas were determined in five world oceans and the time that the Commission spent working on the submissions was examined for each of them. On the basis of this time and the statements published after the sessions was found out that the geopolitical importance of the region does not always mean longer work of the Commission given its apolitical nature.