Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T14:30:56.663Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Is Canada Entitled to the Arctic?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2019

Margaret Moore*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada

Abstract

This article is interested in the general question of what justifies territorial rights over unoccupied places, including places that are not occupied but are situated within the territorial borders of a state. This question arises because one of the most common defenses of rights over territory makes use of the idea of occupancy and has difficulty explaining such rights in places that are not occupied. It explores this question through an examination of the claims and arguments in the Canadian Arctic, which provides an historically specific test case for the merits and plausibility of the various arguments appealed to. It argues that territorial rights in unoccupied places, including the Canadian Arctic, are justified on different grounds than in occupied parts of the territory, and that the justification also affects the kinds of rights—particularly over resources—that such states can claim.

Type
Article
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Canadian Journal of Philosophy

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

$500bn Plan to Refreeze the Arctic.” 2017. The Guardian Weekly (London), March 3, 32.Google Scholar
Anderson, Ewan. 1987. “The Importance of Geographical Scale in Considering Offshore Boundary Problems.” In Maritime Boundaries and Ocean Resources, edited by Blake, Gerald. Beckenham, Kent: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Angeli, Oliviero. 2015. Cosmopolitanism, Self-Determination and Territory: Justice with Borders. Houndsmill Basingstoke, Hampshier: Palgrave MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, Christopher. 2016. “Fairness, Free-riding, and Rainforest Protection.” Political Theory 44 (1), 206–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blake, Gerald. 1987. “Worldwide Maritime Boundary Delimitation.” In Maritime Boundaries and Ocean Resources, edited by Blake, Gerald. Beckenham, Kent: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Byers, Michael. 2013. International Law and the Arctic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cairns, Alan. 2000. Citizens Plus: Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian State. Vancouver: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Canada. Department of Marine and Fisheries. 1898. Report of the Expedition to Hudson Bay and Cumberland Gulf. Ottawa: Department of Marine and Fisheries.Google Scholar
Canada Rejects Flag-planting as ‘Just a Show.’2007. Independent Online, August 3. https://www.iol.co.za/news/world/canada-rejects-flag-planting-as-just-a-show-364759.Google Scholar
Eco-nomics,” 2019. The Economist (London), February 9, 6870.Google Scholar
Gray, David H. 1997. “Canada’s Unresolved Maritime Boundaries.” IBRU Boundary and Security Bulletin 5: 6170.Google Scholar
Foxall, Andrew. 2014. “We Have Proved It, the Arctic Is Ours: Resources, Security and Strategy in the Russian Arctic.” In Polar Geopolitics? Knowledge, Resources and Legal Regimes, edited by Powell, Richard and Dodds, Klaus. Cheltenham: Edgar Elgar.Google Scholar
Head, Ivan. 1963. “Canadian Claims to Territorial Sovereignty in the Arctic Regions.” McGill Law Journal 9: 200–26.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1798 [1739]. A Treatise of Human Nature, edited by Selby-Bigge, L.A.. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Kolers, Avery. 2009. Land, Conflict and Justice: A Political Theory of Territory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locke, John. 1993 [originally published 1689]. “The Second Treatise of Government.” In Political Writings of John Locke, edited by Wootton, David. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Mack, Eric. 2013. “John Locke on Property.” Online Library of Liberty. http://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/eric-mack-on-john-locke-on-property-january-2013.Google Scholar
Meisels, Tamar. 2009. Territorial Rights, 2nd ed. Dordrecht: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, David. 2007. National Responsibility and Global Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, David. 2012. “Territorial Rights: Concept and Identification.” Political Studies 60: 252–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monture-Angus, Patricia. 1999. Journeying Forward: Dreaming ‘First Nations’ Independence. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Fernwood.Google Scholar
Moore, Margaret. 2014. “Which People and What Land? Territorial Right-holders and Attachment to Territory,” International Theory 6 (1): 121–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Margaret. 2015. A Political Theory of Territory. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nichols, Robert. 2018. “Theft Is Property! The Recursive Logic of Dispossession.” Political Theory 46 (1): 328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholson, Norman L. 1979. Boundaries of the Canadian Confederation. Toronto: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Nine, Cara. 2008. “A Lockean Theory of Territory.” Political Studies 56 (1): 148–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nine, Cara. 2012. Global Justice and Territory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nine, Cara. 2015. “Compromise and Original Acquisition: Explaining Rights to the Arctic.” Social Philosophy & Policy 32: 149–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nozick, Robert. 1974. Anarchy, State and Utopia. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Romaniuk, Scott Nicholas. 2013. Global Arctic: Sovereignty and the Future of the North. Luton, Bedfordshire: Berkshire Academic Press.Google Scholar
Simmons, A. John. 1992. The Lockean Theory of Rights Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Simmons, A. John. 2003. “On the Territorial Rights of States.” In Social, Political and Legal Philosophy, Vol. 11, edited by Sosa, Ernest and , Enrique Villaneuva. Malden, MA, and Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Simmons, A. John. 2016. Boundaries of Authority. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steiner, Hillel. 1996. “Territorial Justice.” In National Rights, International Obligations, edited by Caney, Simon, George, David and Jones, Peter. Boulder, CO: Westview Press: 139–68.Google Scholar
Stilz, Anna. 2009. “Why Do States Have Territorial Rights?International Theory 1 (2): 185213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stilz, Anna. 2011. “Nations, States, and Territory,” Ethics 121 (3): 572601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar