Intro to: International Law Issue: Canada’s Arctic Sovereignty

State Sovereignty Definition: Paradox since the 20th century the lawful control by a state over its territory, the right to govern in that territory, the authority to apply law there to the exclusion of other states Paradox since the 20th century States had fought for complete sovereignty among their own territory The development of transportation and other technologies led states to trade with each other and develop treaties to govern those interactions. These treaties limited the sovereignty of states

Small World Between the 1930s – 2000 the world population tripled Immigration and travel increased People and companies had multijurisdictional ties that needed a legal framework within which to operate International commercial enterprises needed to be regulated Multinational corporations demanded legally regulated financial protections from arbitrary state action when they invested overseas

Population Chart

Human Rights Support for international law, especially as a tool for human rights protection, received a dramatic boost through the events of WWII The international community was ill equipped to deal with the Nazi atrocities The international community came together to judge and punish war criminals which created the law that underlay the Nuremburg trials It became clear that a wide range of human activity needed to be regulated on an international basis

Regulation of Space Exploration Space vehicle over-flight and remote sensing from satellites meant that traditional ideas of exclusive territorial state sovereignty had to be reconsidered On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I, an unmanned space satellite that circled Earth every 96 minutes the international community responded by creating rules to govern this new activity

Paradox: Sovereignty vs. interdependence The need to coordination actions among states have given rise to initiatives that limit action by individual states States willingly surrendered some freedom to gain political, economic, or scientific advantages of cooperation The term International Law now describes not only the regulations among states but also how states handle such matters as human rights within their borders

Canadian Issue: Canada’s Arctic Sovereignty Canada’s Arctic occupies a strategic location politically and economically It contains sought after natural resources It underlies important air communications routes from the US to Europe It sites between navigation routes from the eastern seaboard of the US to Alaska

Canada’s Arctic Sovereignty 2 Canada declares the waters between the mainland and the Arctic islands to be internal Canadian waters Canada’s claims have been challenged by the US who sent an ice-strengthened super-tanker through the Northwest Passage to test the possibility of oil transport from Alaska’s North Slope to the US eastern seaboard in 1969

Canada’s Arctic Sovereignty 3 Northwest Passage

Canada’s Arctic Sovereignty 4 With the polar ice cap melting, a possible maritime route – the Northwest Passage – is opening up US commercial ships will want to go through Canada’s territory because it is a shortcut of more than 4000 nautical miles when compared to the current route through the Panama Canal European ships travelling to Asia will also have a significantly shorter trip by using the Northwest Passage

Northwest Passage vs. Panama Canal

Canada’s Arctic Sovereignty 5 The US and other maritime powers do not accept Canada’s claim to sovereignty over the waters of the Arctic archipelago The environment and fragile ecosystem would be greatly effected by an unregulated shipping route

Canada’s Arctic Sovereignty Activity In groups of 3 discuss the opinions on the issue of Canadian claims to sovereignty in the North. Discuss: Is this opinion valid? Explain why or why not? Should Canada send military to protect its claim? Should Canada provide the Inuit people more support to strengthen its settlement of the Arctic? Why does the prospect of global warming make the issue of sovereignty in Arctic waters more pressing? How does the use of Arctic waters by US nuclear submarines affect Canada’s claims to sovereignty? Write: Would you support measures by the Canadian government to assert sovereignty in Arctic waters? Explain