The United States government has officially expanded its territory by one million square kilometers by invoking international law.
The State Department revealed that the US has rights to an area that is roughly 60 percent the size of Alaska, as per the international law.
According to International law, coastal states are allowed to claim rights to ownership of areas which they can prove on scientific grounds.
Extended Continental Shelf
According to Earth.com, the acquisition of this territory lies at how U.S. continental shelf boundaries are defined by the government and international law.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) explains the concept as the “part of the seabed over which a coastal State exercises sovereign rights with regard to the exploration and exploitation of natural resources”.
The coastal states can also manage and exploit the resources of the acquired area.
The former chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, Mead Treadwell, claims that the US must submit the science behind the claim to the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea.
