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Shallow water would probably fall within another sovereign's nautical territory.

agreed. I find it interesting that in light of this, the photo on the home page clearly shows the platform within some country's water.

yes, probably. Though they do discuss the fact that current plans will put the building within the USA's territorial waters.

Only as an interim step. I'd see if the island of Nauru would lend them their sovereignty in exchange for their continued existence as sea levels rise. The island would only become a mooring point, but as long as they could build up just one spot above sea level, they'd still exist.

This has actually been done - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Minerva

Unfortunately, Tonga claimed the island and kicked them out.

The current set of countries are protective of their oligopoly.

Generally, some nation will come and take it from you. Wolf Hilbertz developed an technique to electrically accrete limestone out of sea water and was using it to build a micronation, but it was almost certain that it would be seized by Mauritius when it broke surface.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saya_de_Malha_Bank#Artificial_i...