ARCTIC MARITIME BOUNDARIES AND DISPUTES

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ARCTIC MARITIME BOUNDARIES AND DISPUTES
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Overview

• General overview of the physical and political
  geography of the Arctic.
• Familiarity with existing maritime boundaries and
  how they were created.
• Familiarity with maritime boundary disputes and
  how they might be resolved.
• Particular emphasis on Beaufort Sea.
• Link back to South China Sea dispute.

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The Maritime Arctic

• Much of the concern in the Arctic relates to
  maritime jurisdictions.
• Arctic continental shelves potentially largest
  unexplored oil and gas deposits in world.
• Concerns about disputes.

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Hype
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Baffin Bay and Nares Strait
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Canada-Denmark Boundary

• Median line between Canada's Arctic Islands and
  Greenland.
• Simplified, uses 127 turning points.
• 1,450 nautical miles long.
• Hans Island not included in boundary.
• Problems of accuracy.
• No drilling near line without agreement.

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Canada Denmark Boundary
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Straddling Deposits

• Article 5
• If any single geological petroleum structure or
  field, or any single geological structure or
  field of any other mineral deposit, including
  sand and gravel, extends across the dividing line
  and the part of such structure or field which is
  situated on one side of the dividing line is
  exploitable, wholly or in part, from the other
  side of the dividing line, the Parties shall seek
  to reach an agreement as to the exploitation of
  such structure or field.

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Hans Island
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Bering/Chukchi Seas
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Map Projections
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US-Russia Boundary

• Based on line in 1867 Treaty that ceded Alaska to
  the USA.
• Different methodologies for calculating the line
  prior to 1990.
• Dispute involving 15,000 square nm of ocean.
• 1990 treaty divided disputed area in half.
• US ratified, Russia did not.
• Provisionally applied for 22 years.

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US-Russia Boundary

• Boundary extends as far as permitted by
  international law.
• Innovative features special areas.
• ...such exercise of sovereign rights or
  jurisdiction derives from the agreement of the
  Parties and does not constitute an extension of
  its exclusive economic zone.

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US-Russia Boundary
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Barents Sea
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Barents Sea Dispute

• Gas rich area.
• Dispute over 51,300 sq nm until 2010.
• Norway equidistance claim.
• Russia special circumstances and sector claim.
• 1975 Fisheries Cooperation Agreement.
• Commission decides TAC.
• TAC divided equally.
• Loophole Agreement with Iceland.

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Barents Sea Treaty

• Cut the disputed area roughly in half.
• Drawn on basis of international law to achieve
  equitable result.
• Equitable considerations including coastal
  length.
• Another special area created.
• Agreement on straddling deposits.
• Fisheries cooperation continued.

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Response Paper Questions

• 1. Do you think the unresolved maritime
  boundaries in the Arctic are a cause for concern?
  Why or why not?
• 2. Is the term 'Arctic Sovereignty' misleading?
  How has the term been used and why do you think
  it is used so much by politicians and the media?

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Arctic Physical and Political Geography
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Barents Sea Boundary
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Jan Mayen
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Jan Mayen Boundaries

• 144 sq. nm. Norwegian island. Art 121?
• 250 nm E of Greenland, 360 nm NE of Iceland, 600
  nm W of Norway.
• Only govt employees live there.
• ICJ Greenland v. Norway (Jan Mayen), coastal
  length.
• Conciliation between Iceland and Norway.
• Iceland given full EEZ, with joint development.

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Jan Mayen Boundaries
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Greenland-Svalbard
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Greenland-Svalbard Treaty

• Slightly adjusted equidistance line.
• Runs 430 nautical miles.
• Agreement on straddling deposits.

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Assessment

• Several existing boundaries demonstrate good
  record of cooperation between neighbouring
  states.
• Norway-Russia agreement particularly notable.
• Demonstration effect.
• Ilulissat Declaration.

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Ilulissat Declaration

• Notably, the law of the sea provides for
  important rights and obligations concerning the
  delineation of the outer limits of the
  continental shelf, the protection of the marine
  environment, including ice-covered areas, freedom
  of navigation, marine scientific research, and
  other uses of the sea. We remain committed to
  this legal framework and to the orderly
  settlement of any possible overlapping claims.

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Lincoln Sea
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Lincoln Sea Dispute
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Lincoln Sea Dispute

• Canada and Denmark both delineated EEZ limits,
  using equidistance lines.
• Denmark after drawing straight baselines.
• Canada protested baselines Beaumont Island.
• Two small disputed areas created total area 65
  sq nm.

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The Norwegian Coast
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Straight Baselines

• Article7
• Straight baselines
• 1. In localities where the coastline is deeply
  indented and cut into, or if there is a fringe of
  islands along the coast in its immediate
  vicinity, the method of straight baselines
  joining appropriate points may be employed in
  drawing the baseline from which the breadth of
  the territorial sea is measured.
• 3. The drawing of straight baselines must not
  depart to any appreciable extent from the general
  direction of the coast, and the sea areas lying
  within the lines must be sufficiently closely
  linked to the land domain to be subject to the
  regime of internal waters.

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The US Position

• The United States' position is that straight
  baselines must
• not depart to any appreciable extent from the
  general direction of the coastline, defined as
  20 degrees from coastline direction
• not exceed 48 miles in length
• Islands should mask 50 of coastline and
• result in sea areas situated landward of the
  straight baseline segments that are
  sufficiently closely linked to the land domain
  to be subject to the regime of internal
  waters.

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Lincoln Sea Dispute

• Beaumont Island an island or rock?
• Coastal length?
• Canada's own straight baselines.
• Lack of protest by Canada of 2004 baselines.

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UNCLOS Article 76

• 3. The continental margin comprises the submerged
  prolongation of the land mass of the coastal
  State, and consists of the seabed and subsoil of
  the shelf, the slope and the rise. It does not
  include the deep ocean floor with its oceanic
  ridges or the subsoil thereof.
• 4. (a) For the purposes of this Convention, the
  coastal State shall establish the outer edge of
  the continental margin wherever the margin
  extends beyond 200 nautical miles from the
  baselines from which the breadth of the
  territorial sea is measured, by either
• (i) a line delineated in accordance with
  paragraph 7 by reference to the outermost fixed
  points at each of which the thickness of
  sedimentary rocks is at least 1 per cent of the
  shortest distance from such point to the foot of
  the continental slope or
• (ii) a line delineated in accordance with
  paragraph 7 by reference to fixed points not more
  than 60 nautical miles from the foot of the
  continental slope.
• (b) In the absence of evidence to the contrary,
  the foot of the continental slope shall be
  determined as the point of maximum change in the
  gradient at its base.
• 5. The fixed points comprising the line of the
  outer limits of the continental shelf on the
  seabed, drawn in accordance with paragraph
  4 (a)(i) and (ii), either shall not exceed
  350 nautical miles from the baselines from which
  the breadth of the territorial sea is measured or
  shall not exceed 100 nautical miles from the
  2,500 metre isobath, which is a line connecting
  the depth of 2,500 metres.

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Beaufort Sea Dispute

• Most significant of the remaining disputes.
• Traditional understanding has changed.
• Oil in the area is probable.
• Early efforts at resolution unsuccessful.
• Special interests of indigenous peoples. Fishery.
• Joint mapping of ECS.
• Case study ideas for resolving the dispute.

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Healy and Louis S. St-Laurent
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Beaufort Sea
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Beaufort Sea Dispute
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Canada's Claim

• Meridian line (141 W).
• 1825 Treaty between UK and Russia.
• As far as the frozen ocean.
• Object and purpose Czar's claim.
• US acquiescence?
• US use of 1867 Treaty in 1990 USSR-USA boundary.
• Sector theory abandoned.

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United States' Claim

• Equidistance line.
• Equitable claim in line with requirements of
  international law.
• No factors that require adjustment.
• 1825 treaty construction As far as...
• Historically, waters did not extend far.
• Different language of 1867 treaty into...

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Extended Continental Shelves

• Changes climate change, oil price, CLCS and
  mapping.
• Canada's CLCS deadline 2013.
• Mapping conducted collaboratively.
• ECS reaches further than first thought.
• Possibility of both countries being able to
  extend rights.
• Canada invited US to negotiate in 2010.

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Beaufort Sea Continental Shelf
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Extended Beaufort Sea Dispute?
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Considerations

• Canadian position would seem to benefit the US in
  the northern area and vice versa.
• Disputed northern area may be larger.
• Disputed northern area may have fewer resources.
• Disputed northern area deeper, further from
  shore, more ice.

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What Should The Parties Do?

• One party recognizes the position of the other?
• Retain same position beyond 200 nm to that within
  it?
• Divide the are in half?
• Retain part of this position?
• Abandon their positions altogether?

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Recap of Relevant Law

• Three-step test.
• Coastal length.
• Coastal configuration.
• Islands.
• Seabed configuration.

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Domestic Constraints

• Inuvialuit Settlement Region uses 1825 line.
• Constitutionally protected document.
• Duty to consult and compensate.
• Involve the Inuit in negotiations?
• Incentive to compromise as little as possible.
• Ammunition for shifting equidistance?
• Possible creative solutions?

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Inuvialuit Settlement Region
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Suggestions?
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New Canadian Position?

• Difficult to change method beyond 200 nm.
• Equidistance preferable?
• Reasons to adjust equidistance?
• Coastal configuration?
• Costal length? Which coasts?
• Islands?
• Adjusted equidistance and then equidistance?
• Natural prolongation irrelevant shared ECS.

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New US Position?

• Chukchi Plateau a natural prolongation of US
  shelf?
• Richardson at UNCLOS negotiations.
• Equidistance within 200 as per Libya-Malta?
• Natural prolongation beyond? Cannot cut off
  Chukchi Plateau.
• Effect of Bay of Bengal Case?

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Other Options

• Litigation/arbitration.
• Options for the CLCS process
• Reduce size of dispute.
• Multifunctional delimitation (e.g. Torres
  Strait).
• Economic access rights.
• Joint development. Which model? Where?

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Joint Development
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Assessment

• Most remaining disputes are small.
• Beaufort Sea is largest active dispute but being
  negotiated.
• Russia-Canada boundary?
• Not nearly as complex as SCS.
• Central Arctic Ocean may prove more complex.