The Canadian Claim to Sovereignty over the Waters of the Arctic

• Published in: Canadian Yearbook of international Law/Annuaire canadien de droit international
• Main Author: Reid, Robert S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1975
• Subjects: Law; Political Science and International Relations; Arctic; Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Canada; Northwest Passage; Charybdis; Archipelago; Arctic Archipelago; Northwest passage; Prudhoe Bay; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0069005800012510; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0069005800012510

In the late summer of 1969 the American tanker S.S. Manhattan traversed the fabled Northwest Passage through the waters of the Canadian Arctic archipelago. Its purpose was to determine the commercial feasibility of transporting crude oil via ice-breaking supertankers from the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay in Alaska to the eastern seaboard of the United States. In Canada the voyage of the Manhattan triggered a reaction of nationalism accompanied not only by flag waving but by a vehement demand for a definitive statement of Canadian sovereignty over the waters of the Arctic and particularly the Northwest Passage. The Liberal government under Prime Minister Trudeau found itself between the Scylla of public demands and the Charybdis of international law. In 1969 Canada claimed a three-mile territorial sea, which meant that the waters beyond that limit were high seas and beyond Canadian jurisdiction. Any claim to authority over Arctic waters might be quickly challenged in the World Court, and if proved to have no basis in international law the Canadian claim would be lost for good. The purpose of this paper is to determine the nature of Canada’s claim to the Arctic waters as disclosed by the Canadian government in its pronouncements and actions.