The Supreme Court in plenary has processed the issue of whether the Latvian shipping company SIA North STAR Ltd. has the right to catch snow crab on the continental shelf off Svalbard.
On Monday, the Supreme Court unanimously concluded that the Svalbard Treaty does not give the Latvian shipping company this right.
As High North News has previously reported, the basis of the matter is the geographical scope of the Svalbard Treaty – and therefore a core issue for Norway: How far from Svalbard’s coastline should the treaty apply?
The answer has great significance for Norway. If the judgment had gone in the shipping company’s favor, Norway might have had to share the resources located on Svalbard’s continental shelf, writes Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
”And that would not just apply to snow crab. That would also apply to oil, gas, minerals, and fishery. The consequence of a judgment in which the Svalbard Treaty is applied on the continental shelf would have potentially major consequences for Norway,” Øystein Jensen, an expert on maritime law and law professor at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo, previously stated to NRK. Läs artikel