Extending Indonesia?: opportunities and challenges related to the definition of Indonesia's extended continental shelf rights

This chapter examines issues related to Indonesia's continental shelf and, in particular, those areas of continental shelf extending seaward of the 200-nautical-mile limit of Indonesia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which may form part of its legal continental shelf. Such areas are commonly referred to as the' outer' or 'extended' continental shelf. The continental shelf can be considered to consist of the seabed and subsoil areas surrounding a coastal state's land territory. As a consequence of the link between a coastal state's land territory and the continental shelf surrounding it, coastal states possess sovereign rights over their continental shelf.