The Timor Gap Treaty and the Law of the Sea Convention1 Francis M. Auburn University of Western Australia Vivian L. Forbes University of Western Australia INTRODUCTION Coastal state jurisdiction over the resources of the Continental Shelf has its origin in a unilateral assertion of jurisdiction by the United States-the Tru- man Proclamation of 1945-and in the Geneva Convention on the Continen- tal Shelf, 1958. The convention entered into force in 1964. By then it was generally recognized that as a matter of customary international law a coastal state could exercise sovereign rights over the natural resources of its Conti- nental Shelf out to a maximum water depth of 200 m and beyond that, as far as available technology permitted exploitation. Confirmation of the coastal state's rights to explore and exploit the natural resources of the sea and seabed adjacent to its coast with the assertion that this was the natural prolon- gation of its land territory was given in the North Sea Continental Shelf Cases.2 2 Article 76 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS Convention)3 defined the seaward boundary of the natural prolonga- tion as the edge of the continental margin. In accordance with the provisions of Article 76, a Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will be established. Its functions are defined in Annex II of the convention. Article 56 of the convention gives coastal states the right to exploit the resources of both the water column and seabed out to 200 nm measured from the coastal state's Territorial Sea baselines. This concept, referred to as the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), is legally distinct from that of the Continental Shelf, 1. The authors would like to express their thanks for support given by the Centre for Commercial and Resources Law School of the University of Western Aus- tralia and Murdoch University and the Indian Ocean Centre for Peace Studies of the University of Western Australia and Curtin University of Technology. 2. ICJ Reports (1969): 3. 3. Not yet in force.