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Miles and Meters Matter: Political Effects on the Shipping Routes of Measurement Techniques in the Arctic

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Arctic Marine Sustainability

Part of the book series: Springer Polar Sciences ((SPPS))

Abstract

States sought sovereignty over the Arctic Region by discovering the vastness of this uncharted territory. Coastal states developed measurement techniques to take the biggest share of the region. One of these measurement techniques is the Sector Principle that the Canadian senator Pascal Poirier introduced in 1907. Other Arctic states, such as the United States of America and Norway, objected to this technique. However, Russia also adopted and started to use this principle in order to draw Arctic borders in 1926. Before the Sector Principle was introduced, the Median Line Principle had been used and is still in use. Therefore, this new technique created political disputes on the controversial areas in the Arctic. Thus, another problem occurred apart from the unsolved disputed regions; the states also argued their way of measuring and calculating while preparing their Arctic claims to the UNCLOS. The Law of the Sea (1982) brought rules for gaining sovereignty for the 5 coastal states in the Arctic. On the other hand, currently, climate change threat increases the immense geopolitical importance of the region regarding petroleum, oil & gas and especially new shipping routes opportunities. Therefore, sovereignty rights in the region became much more significant for littoral states. Accordingly, this paper will try to see how technical systems have impacted on political claims – especially on shipping routes – and will analyse the history of acquisition of the sovereignty in the Arctic by two measuring techniques. The focus will be on Sector Principle within the sovereignty concept and geopolitical framework.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    National Safe Deposit Co. v. Stead, 232 U.S. 58, 34 S. Ct. 209, 58 L. Ed. 504 [1914], quoted by Klein Christine A., Property: Cases, Problems and Skills, Wolters Kluwer, New York, 2016, p. 62.

  2. 2.

    Radin Max, “Fundamental Concepts of the Roman Law”, California Law Review, Vol: 13, Issue: 3, Berkeley, pp. 207–228.

  3. 3.

    Crawford James, Brownlies’s Principles of Public International Law, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012, p. 241.

  4. 4.

    Pharand Donath, Legal Status of the Arctic Regions, Edmond Mongomery Publications, Toronto, 2000, p. 424–425.

  5. 5.

    1825 is the Anglo-Russian Convention on the boundary and 1867 is Alaska’s ceding treaty from Russia to the United States.

  6. 6.

    Joyner Christopher, Antarctica and the Law of the Sea, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht, 1992, pp. 54–59.

  7. 7.

    Witschel Georg, Winkelmann Ingo, Tiroch Katrin, New Chances and New Responsibilities in the Arctic Region, Papers from the International Conference at the German Federal Foreign Office in Cooperation with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and Norway 11–13 March 2009, Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin, 2010, p. 215.

  8. 8.

    Hyde Charles, International Law Chiefly; Interpreted and Applied by the United States, Little, Brown and Company Press, Boston, 1947, pp. 60–61.

  9. 9.

    Byers Michael, International Law and the Arctic, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013, p. 72.

  10. 10.

    Pharand Donath, op. cit. p. 425.

  11. 11.

    Byers Michael, Who Owns the Arctic: Understanding Sovereignty Disputes in the North, Douglas & McIntyre Publishing, Vancouver, 2009, p. 50.

  12. 12.

    Joyner Christopher, Antarctica and the Law of the Sea, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht, 1992, p. 56.

  13. 13.

    Lajeunesse Adam, Lock, Stock and Icebergs: A History of Canada’s Arctic Maritime Sovereignty , UBC Press, Vancouver, 2016, p. 27.

  14. 14.

    Ibid, p. 27.

  15. 15.

    Sjöberg Lars, “The Three-Point Problem of the Median Line Turning Point: on the Solution for the Sphere and Ellisoid”, International Hydrographic Review, Vol: 3, No: 1, 2002, pp. 81–87.

  16. 16.

    Howard Roger, The Arctic Gold Rush: The New Race for Tomorrow’s Natural Resources, Bloomsbury Academic Press, London, 2009, p. 59.

  17. 17.

    Schofield Clive, “Departures from the Coast: Trends in the Application of Territorial Sea Baselines under the Law of the Sea Convention”, the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law, Vol. 27, 2012, pp. 723–732.

  18. 18.

    Jones Benjamin, Puckett Catherine, Vinas Jose Marias, “Erosion Doubles along Part of Alaska’s Arctic Coast: Cultural and Historical Sites Lost”, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 18 February 2009. (https://soundwaves.usgs.gov/2009/05/research2.html) accessed in 20 May 2017.

  19. 19.

    Ibid, p. 61.

  20. 20.

    Johansson Taffsir, Donner Patrick, The Shipping Industry, Ocean Governance and Environmental Law in the Paradigm Shift in Search of a Pragmatic Shift for the Arctic, Springer, New York, 2015, p. 60.

  21. 21.

    Dahl-Jorgensen Arnfinn, Eger Magnus Karl, Floistad Brit, Larsen-Mejlaender Morten, Lothe Lars, Wergeland Tor, Ostreng Willy, Shipping in Arctic Waters, A Comparison of the Northeast, Northwest and Trans-Polar Passages, Praxis Publishing, Chichester, 2013, p. 262.

  22. 22.

    “Heads of Gazprom, Statoil and Total discuss implementation of Shtokman project”’, Gazprom official web page, 8 July 2011, (http://www.gazprom.com/press/news/2011/july/article115065/), Accessed in August, 2018.

  23. 23.

    Honneland Geir, Russia and the Arctic: Environment, Identity and Foreign Policy, I. B Tauris & Co., London, 2016, pp. 104–105.

  24. 24.

    Hund Jon Andrew, Antarctica and the Arctic Circle: A Geographic Encyclopedia of the Earth’s Polar Regions, ABC-CLIO Publishing, California, 2014, p. 107.

  25. 25.

    Smith Robert W., Bradford Thomas, “Island Disputes and the Law of the Sea: An Examination of Sovereignty and Delimitation Disputes”, in Schofield Clive, Harris Andrew (eds), Maritime Briefing, Vol:2, No:4, International Boundaries Research Unit, Durham, 1998, pp. 24–25.

  26. 26.

    Conway Martin, No Man’s land: A History of Spitsbergen from its Discovery in 1596 to the beginning of the Scientific Exploration of the Country, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1906, pp. 33–38.

  27. 27.

    Credland Arthur, “Benjamin Leigh Smith: A Forgotten Pioneer”, Cambridge Core, Vol: 20, No: 125, 1980, 127–145.

  28. 28.

    Ibid, pp. 127–145.

  29. 29.

    Churchill Robin, Ulfstein Geirs, “The Disputed Maritime Zones around Svalbard”, Changes in the Arctic Environment and the Law of the Sea, Panel IX, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden, 2010, pp. 551–593.

  30. 30.

    Conway Martin, Op. Cit., pp. 33–38.

  31. 31.

    Ulfstein Geir, The Svalbard Treaty; from Terra Nullius to Norwegian Sovereignty , Scandinavia University Press, Oslo, 1995, pp. 34–38.

  32. 32.

    Afghanistan, Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela.

  33. 33.

    Staalesen Atle, “Russian Svalbard Protest Totally without Merit”, The Independent Barents Observer, 21 April 2017 (https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2017/04/russian-svalbard-protest-totally-without-merit) Accessed in April 2017.

  34. 34.

    Staalesen Atle, “Going All in Norway Proposes Massive Opening of Artic Shelf”, The Independent Barents Observer, 13 march 2017 (https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy/2017/03/going-all-norway-opens-its-arctic-shelf-wide-open-oil-drilling), Accessed in May 2017.

  35. 35.

    United States, Proclamation 2667, “Policy of the United States with Respect to the Natural Resources of the Subsoil and Sea Bed of the Continental Shelf”, 28 September 1945.

  36. 36.

    Wasum-Rainer Susanne, Winkelmann Ingo, Tiroch Katrir, Arctic Science, International Law and Climate Change : Legal Aspects of Marine Science in the Arctic Ocean, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2012, p. 122.

  37. 37.

    Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf, 29 April 1958, Article 2.

  38. 38.

    Wasum-Rainer Susanne, Winkelmann Ingo, Tiroch Katrir, Op. Cit., p. 123

  39. 39.

    “United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea”, 10 December 1982, Article 76.

  40. 40.

    UNCLOS , SECTION 8, ICE-COVERED AREAS, Article 234, “Ice-covered areas Coastal States have the right to adopt and enforce non-discriminatory laws and regulations for the prevention, reduction and control of marine pollution from vessels in ice-covered areas within the limits of the exclusive economic zone, where particularly severe climatic conditions and the presence of ice covering such areas for most of the year create obstructions or exceptional hazards to navigation, and pollution of the marine environment could cause major harm to or irreversible disturbance of the ecological balance. Such laws and regulations shall have due regard to navigation and the protection and preservation of the marine environment based on the best available scientific evidence.”

  41. 41.

    CHNL (Centre for High North Logistics), official information page for NSR. (http://www.arctic-lio.com/docs/nsr/transits/Transits_in_2015.pdf) Accessed in August, 2018.

  42. 42.

    Chernova Svetlona, Volkov Anton, Economic feasibility of the Northern Sea Route container shipping development, Masteroppgaver i bedriftsøkonomi, Bodo University Publishing, 2010.

  43. 43.

    Ibid, (http://www.arctic-lio.com/nsr_iceclasscriteria), Accessed in August, 2018.

  44. 44.

    Ibid, (http://www.arctic-lio.com/nsr_generalareadescription), Accessed in August, 2018.

  45. 45.

    Byers Michael, “Canada’s Arctic nightmare just came true: The Northwest Passage is commercial”, The Globe and Mail, 28 November 2017. (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/canadas-arctic-nightmare-just-came-true-the-northwest-passage-is-commercial/article14432440/) Accessed in August, 2018.

  46. 46.

    German-Canadian Research Project, “Research News”, Fraunhofer, November 2016, pp. 2–3. (https://www.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/zv/en/press-media/2016/November/ResearchNews/rn11_2016_FKIE_Safe%20navigation%20through%20the%20Northwest%20Passage.pdf) Accessed in August, 2018.

  47. 47.

    Brathen Svein, Schoyen Halvor, “The Northern Sea Route versus the Suez Canal: cases from bulk shipping”, Journal of Transport Geography, Vol: 19, Issue: 4, 2011, pp. 977–983.

  48. 48.

    “Power of Siberia gas pipeline completed by 90.5 per cent, 1954 kilometers built”, Official web page of Gazprom. (http://www.gazprom.com/press/news/2018/july/article446731/)’ Accessed in August, 2018.

  49. 49.

    Humpert Malte, “Novatek’s Yamal LNG Doubles Production Capacity Ahead of Schedule”, High North News, 13 August 2018. (http://www.highnorthnews.com/novateks-yamal-lng-doubles-production-capacity-ahead-of-schedule/)’ Accessed in August, 2018.

  50. 50.

    Alfred Thayer Mahan associates the power of the state with the sea force. His piece The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783 details the advantages of the sea power.

  51. 51.

    Dahl-Jorgensen Arnfinn, et. alii, op. cit. p. 257.

  52. 52.

    Bergy waters: freely navigable water in terms of ice concentration. Polar Code , 2017, Annex 10, Chapter 1, p. 10.

Abbreviations

CHNL:

Centre for High North Logistics

CLCS:

Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelves

EEZ:

Exclusive Economic Zones

LNG:

Liquid Natural Gas

NSR:

Northern Sea Route and

NWP:

Northwest Passage

TPP:

Trans-Polar Passage

TSR:

Trans-Arctic Sea Route

UNCLCS:

United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf

UNCLOS:

United Nations Law of the Sea Convention

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  1. University of Versailles, Science Po Bordeaux, Paris, France

    Eda Ayaydın

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  1. Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Eva Pongrácz

  2. Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Victor Pavlov

  3. Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Niko Hänninen

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Ayaydın, E. (2020). Miles and Meters Matter: Political Effects on the Shipping Routes of Measurement Techniques in the Arctic. In: Pongrácz, E., Pavlov, V., Hänninen, N. (eds) Arctic Marine Sustainability. Springer Polar Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28404-6_7

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