2 - Boundary treaties as a legal basis for the sector theory

Summary

The 1825 Treaty between Great Britain and Russia, and the 1867 Treaty between the United States and Russia, have sometimes been invoked as a legal basis for the sector theory. Numerous writers and commentators have disagreed with such an interpretation of those treaties, and the matter is still the subject of controversy. This chapter examines the view of the main proponents of the boundary treaty basis and attempts a thorough analysis of the relevant provisions of those treaties.

Main proponents of boundary treaties

The main proponent of the sector theory is the Soviet writer, W. L. Lakhtine. He is also the one who tried to find a treaty basis for a full systematization of the theory in the Arctic. Before him, an American, David Hunter Miller, had given partial support to the theory and to the use of the boundary treaties for this purpose.

David Hunter Miller

Miller wrote in 1925, shortly after the Canadian Minister of the Interior, Charles Stewart, had used the sector theory to claim sovereignty right up to the Pole. Miller quoted from Article III of the 1825 Treaty which provides for the 141st degree of longitude to form the limit between the respective possessions of Russia and Great Britain in the following terms:

… la même ligne méridienne du l4^èmedegré formera, dansson prolongement jusqu' à la Mer Glaciale, la limite entre les Possessions Russes et Britanniques sur le Continent de l'Amérique Nord-Ouest.