The United Nation's Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provides the basic legal regime for the Arctic Ocean. Within the boundaries of this legal framework, important political processes are playing out, not least those pertaining to the delimitation of the coastal states' extended continental shelves, as well as the regulation of living marine resources. These are areas where the Arctic states, as well as other stakeholders such as China, Japan, and the European Union (EU) have important interests. The efforts toward delimiting the continental shelf and the regulation of the living resources of the Arctic Ocean beyond 200 nautical miles (nm) from the coast, represent processes where both international law as well as scientific research play into the political process, creating a complex and composite whole worthy of further investigation.