Canada and the Problem of Sovereignty in the Arctic in 1950s-1960s: from Terrestrial to Maritime Sovereignty

Abstract

In the 1950s Canada's policy of assertion of its sovereignty in the Arctic was undergoing major changes. By the beginning of the 1950s Canadian lawyers made an important conclusion that Canada's sovereignty over all lands in its Arctic sector can be justified by the right of effective occupation without involving a sector theory. Since 1954 Canada began to perceive the problem of sovereignty in the Arctic not as a problem of sovereignty over land but as a question of sovereignty over sea space. The shift in focus – from land to sea – has forced Canada to abandon the sector theory as unnecessary and ineffective. In the mid-1950s the government of L. Saint Laurent decided to limit the country's maritime claims in the Arctic to the waters of the Arctic Archipelago. The straight baseline method, recognized by the International Court of Justice in 1951, was chosen as the legal basis for such claims. In the first half of the 1960s the governments of J. Diefenbaker and L. Pearson made efforts to legalize Canada's extended maritime borders in the Arctic at the international level, but failed both because of their unwillingness to aggravate relations with the United States for this and Canada's desire to act strictly within the framework of international the law of the sea.