Maritime Jurisdiction in the Dixon Entrance: The Alaska Boundary Re-Examined

Abstract

The settlement of the Alaska-Canada boundary is one of the more colourful episodes in Canadian-American relations. After 75 years of uncertainty, disagreement, and dispute over the actual position of the boundary line between the territory of Great Britain and of Russia, and later of the United States, a tribunal was established in 1903 to interpret the treaty between Great Britain and Russia, concluded in 1825, in which the boundaries had been defined. The tribunal in rendering its decision adopted neither the contention of the United States nor that of Britain, but drew a line that corresponded more closely with official Russian maps prepared shortly after the 1825 Treaty was concluded. However, on an issue seen at the time in Canada as critical, the tribunal found in favour of the United States, awarding it the island of Sitklan and Kannaghunut at the mouth of the Portland Channel. This gave rise to a storm of protest in Canada, anger being vented particularly at the British jurist Lord Alverstone, the president of the tribunal, who was suspected of selling out to the Americans.