Study of 7 major questions: the applicability of the right of innocent passage to the Northwest and Northeast Passages; the status of the waters of the Canadian arctic archipelago; the possibility of claiming a historic title to some of the arctic waters; the applicability of the principle of "the freedom of the seas" to the Arctic Ocean; the status of ice shelves and ice islands; the international validity of the Canadian arctic pollution prevention legislation; and the state boundaries of the arctic continental shelf and sea-bed.
Seven major questions are studied: The applicability of the right of innocent passage to the Northwest and Northeast Passages; the status of the waters of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago; the possibility of claiming a historic title to some of the Arctic waters; the applicability of the principle of 'the freedom of the seas' to the Arctic Ocean; the status of ice shelves and ice islands; the international validity of the Canadian Arctic pollution prevention legislation and the state boundaries of the Arctic continental shelf and sea-bed.
This is the last of three volumes dealing with the International Legal Environment (see list in back of book), included in the Collected Research Studies of the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada. The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 3) culminated in the adopted of the United Nations convention on the law of the sea in 1982. Since then 150 countries, including Canada, have signed this historic treaty. It affects Canada's four major ocean industries: fishing, offshore petroleum, shipping and ocean mining. As Canada contemplates ratification of this agreement, it must consider these as well as several other maritime matters, including transit management, offshore development, marine-technology development and ocean-science policy. This volume delineates the issues and their implications for Canada's future at sea, and recommends the establishment of an independent advisory body to ensure serious and comprehensive treatment of maritime concerns.
Changes in the Arctic Environment and the Law of the Sea is based on the 33rd Annual Conference of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy, a primary sponsor, along with the Law of the Sea Institute of Iceland as well as with the U.S. Arctic Commission, the University of Alaska (Fairbanks) and the Law of the Sea Institute, Law School (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley.
Since the 1960s, there have been intensive international negotiations to revise the law of the sea. These discussions culminated in the convening of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea in December 1973 and in four additional sessions up to September 1976. Whether the almost 150 participating states will be able to reach an accord in 1977 or later on, the myriad issues on their agenda is still uncertain. Two major issues have been the extension of coastal-state jurisdiction over resources and activities and the estblishment of an international regime to govern the exploitation of the deep seabed. Canada's most significant role has been that of a leader of the "coastal-state grouping," which has sought to expand states' jurisdiction over fisheries, seabed resources, scientific research, and pollution control within a 200-mile economic zone and sometimes beyond. A number of these Canadian policy goals have already been accepted by a large majority of the participants in the conference. In this role, Canada has found itsself opposed to many of its traditional allies among the developed nations with large fleets engaged in commerce in distant waters, and concerned about the traditional freedom of the high seas, and has aligned itself with the coastal developing nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The seven essays in this volume examine the development of Canadian policies on the major law of the sea issues and the outcome of the negotiations on them. In so doing, the studies have analysed Canada's dramatic seward expansion and involvement in one of teh most important United Nations Conferences.
The fact that the Montego Bay Convention has been only ratified by 37 States at present and that it will be some time before the 60 ratifications required by Article 308 are achieved has not prevented states from acting in accordance with the rules drawn up by the Conference. Close on one hundred states have established either exclusive economic zones broadly modelled on Part V or 200-nautical-mile fishery zones and drawn on the principles laid down for exploiting living resources. Although these laws have been formulated unilaterally by states, international custom, since the judgement by the International Court of Justice in the Fisheries Case of 18 December 1951, is derived from concordant national rules. This shift began even before the Conference ended, and has been consolidated since then. Moreover, the regime governing the sea-bed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction defined by Part XI, which was the stumbling block of the Conference, is subject to transitional arrangements on the basis of two resolutions adopted in the Conference's Final Act, one providing for the establishment of a Preparatory Commission and the other on the preliminary activities of pioneer investors. This two-volume work, an earlier edition of which appeared in French, has been written by a team of experts of international renown. It presents an analysis of the Convention with an additional Chapter on the legal regime governing underwater archaeological and historical objects.
Antarctica and the Southern Ocean cover one-tenth of the earth's surface. In a legal and environmental sense, Antarctica represents the geography of hope. It is the freshest and most pristine of regions, governed by a legal regime that offers Antarctica and its circumpolar water the unique possibility of becoming the world's first global wilderness preserve. But in today's age of resource scarcity, Antarctica still provokes much political, economic and legal debate. Over the past decade, international attention has increasingly focused on the legal status of the continent, the potential for hydrocarbon exploitation offshore, and opportunities for harvesting circumpolar living marine resources. In this fascinating treatment, Christopher C. Joyner undertakes the first serious examination of the intimate relationship between Antarctica and the law of the sea. Using Antarctica as a case study, Joyner probes large conceptual issues of ocean law and politics. He uses the intricate details of oceanography and law to unravel the dynamics of the Antarctic Treaty System. In doing so, he examines how the changing importance of Antarctic issues has affected the development of the law of the sea for the region, the ways in which states define their national interests, and the accommodation through various negotations that have contributed to the development of law for governing the Southern Ocean. While the study of law for the Antarctic is provocative in itself, this work goes much farther. The study critically analyzes the region's biogeography, the condition of sovereignty on the continent, the lawfulness of asserting jurisdictional zones offshore, and various legal implications for Antarctica's continental shelf, local island groups, circumpolar deep seabed, and the Southern Ocean's high seas. Moreover, the special legal efforts by the international community to protect the Antarctic seas from marine pollution and to conserve its living marine resources are comprehensively appraised. Thorough, authoritative, and objectively reasoned, Antarctica and the Law of the Sea provides an insightful assessment of how law can progressively develop for a resource-rich region of the world's ocean. As such, it should appeal to a broad range of international lawyers and social scientists who are interested in international relations, political economy, environmental politics, and the law of the sea.
