Canada: new approaches to the problem of sovereignty in the Arctic in the early 1970s

Abstract

In 1970 Canada passed the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, which established a 100-mile maritime zone off its northern coast. To achieve recognition of this law at the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea, Canada acted in two ways. On the one hand, Canada developed and supported those concepts that gave coastal states the right to operate outside territorial waters. On the other hand, Canada sought the adoption of international documents to protect the marine environment from pollution.