iceland ratified the united nations convention on the law of the sea in 1985; it was the first western country to do so. a regulation was issued by the government in that same year outlining the area where iceland claimed continental shelf rights for itself; the regulation was based on legislation from 1979 claiming for iceland the exclusive right to research and exploitation of continental shelf-based resources within the limits of the icelandic continental shelf. regarding the hatton-rockall area, it claims the area within from the foot of the continental shelf and assumes that the uk and ireland cannot claim a continental shelf outside their eezs. to its fullest extent, this area reaches about to the south from iceland's coast, which is further south than the united kingdom's southernmost point.