The 'Peaceful Purposes' Principle in Antarctica and the Stability of Its Peaceful Status

The Common Heritage of Mankind has been a prominent constituent when seeking to define the legal status of the global commons. However, the concept of Common Heritage of Mankind has never been clearly defined and its elements, whilst agreed upon among States in principle, are often subject to different interpretations in substance. One of the exceptions to this may be the element of “peaceful purposes” in the context of Antarctica: it has consistently been interpreted as meaning non-militarization and nuclear-free; it is verified with the broad right of mutual inspections; inspections conducted so far have not reported any violations. The fact that the fundamental issue of Antarctic sovereignty has not yet been resolved once and for all under international law casts doubt prima facie upon the stability of its peaceful status. The most significant threat to this stability is the possible carrying out of mineral exploitation. Nevertheless, significant disruption is unlikely, because CRAMRA, which is widely accepted by the States most concerned, and the most powerful, is in abeyance with respect to the regulation of mineral exploitation. This in no way affects the integrity of the treaty: due to its lack of a benefit-sharing mechanism between technology-ready States and technology-lacking States. The most appropriate international reaction might be the revival of the Question of Antarctica in the UN General Assembly, bidding for a benefit-sharing mechanism modeled on that laid out for the Area in UNCLOS