Page 59 - Law of Peace, Volume ,

Pam 27-161-1

Organization, to apply the Convention to the Australian Antarctic Ter- representatives of contracting states in order to formulate
ritory which does not maintain its own meteorological service. and recommend measures in furtherance of the objectives
In his reply dated January 30, 1956, the Secretary of of the treaty (Art. M). In addition to other articles deal-
State, after acknowledging receipt of the Australian Am- ing with mutual inspection of Antarctic activities and in-
bassador's note and summarizing its contents, stated: stallations by the contracting parties and with the exercise
of jurisdiction over certain Antarctic personnel, the treaty
My Government wishes to point out, as it has on previous occasions,
that it does not recognize any claims so far advanced in the Antarctic and provides in Article IV:
reserves all nghts accruipg to the United States out of activities of na- 1. Nothing contained in the present Treaty shall be interpreted as:
tionals of the United States in the area. (a) a renunciation by any Contracting Party of previously asserted
The American Embassy in Santiago delivered the follow- rights of or claims to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica;
(b) a renunciation or diminution by any Contracting Party of any
ing aide-memoire to the Foreign Minister of Chile on basis of claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica which it may have
August 2, 1955: whether as a result of its activities or those of its nationals in Antarctica,
The Government of the United States of America notes Chilean law or otherwise;
11,846 was promulgated on June 17, 1955. That law purports to incor- (c) prejudicing the position of any Contracting Party as regards its
porate into Chilean provincial administration those areas claimed by recognition or nonrecognition of any other State's right of or claim or
Chile in the Antarctic. The Government of the United States wishes to basis of claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica.
reiterate that it has recognized no claims advanced with respect to the 2. No acts or activities taking place while the present Treaty is in force
Antarctic by other countries and that it reserves all rights of the United shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim to
States with respect to the area. territorial sovereignty in Antarctica or create any rights of sovereignty in
-Antarctica. No new claim, nor enlargement of an existing claim, to ter-
The Department of State replied in like manner on ritorial sovereignty in Antarctica shall be asserted while the present
November 5, 1956, to a Chilean memorandum transmit- Treaty is in force.
ting a copy of a Decree implementing the above law. On The Treaty contains no general provision governing juris-
May 14, 1958, the Legal Advisor of the Department of diction over persons in Antarctica. 35 It entered into force
State, Loftus Becker, said in the course of testimony on June 23,196 1. As of the beginning of 1975, the parties
before the Special Committee on Space and Astronautics to the treaty were: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile,
of the United States Senate: Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Japan, Netherlands,
.. . There [in Antarctica], for many, many years, the United States New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, South Africa,
has been engaged in activities which under established principles of in- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom,
ternational law, without any question whatsoever, created rights upon and the United States. The Treaty may be amended at any
which the United States would be justified in asserting territorial claims.
time by unanimous vote of the contracting parties. At the
I mean by that, claims to sovereignty over one or more areas of the Ant-
arctic. expiration of thirty years from the date of entry into force,
Notwithstanding this fact, the United States has not asserted any any of the original contracting parties may call for a con-
claim of sovereignty over any portion of Antarctica, although the United ference of all contracting parties. The conference may
States has, at the same time, made it perfectly plain that it did not recog- amend the Treaty by majority vote. Failure to ratify any
nize any such claims made by other States.
amendment constitutes withdrawal from the Treaty.
It is the position of the United States Government, and one well
founded in international law, that the fact that the United States has not g, The Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. With the ad-
based a claim of sovereignty over one or more areas of Antarctica, upon vent of space travel and exploration, still another area of
the basis of the activities it has engaged in there, in no way derogates potential jurisdictional dispute has evolved. In an attempt
from the rights that were established by its activities. 33
to prevent such conflicts, early efforts have been made to
Influenced perhaps by the momentum generated during regulate state activities in this area. Of primary importance
the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58, during is the 1967 Outer Space Treaty 36 of which the most im-
which scientific expeditions from many countries con- portant articles are the following:
ducted research and experiments in Antarctica without Art. 1. The exploration and use of outer space, including the moon
regard to questions of territorial sovereignty, a conference and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the
called by the United States of those states having substan-
tial interests in that continent succeeded in producing the 3s. The failure of the treaty to include general jurisdictional provi-
Antarctic Treaty, signed on December 1, 1959. 34 The sions has produced interesting results. In July of 1970, Mario Escamilla
shot and killed a fellow U.S. government researcher on Arctic ice island
most important provision of the treaty states that Ant- T-3, a 28-mile-square ice slab floating in the Arctic. Defense attorneys
arctica "shall be used for peaceful purposes only" (Art. argued the U.S. had no jurisdiction to try Escarnilla, while the Justice
I), and to that end, the treaty prohibits military installa- Department asserted the crime was covered by U.S. maritime jurisdic-
tions, maneuvers, and weapons tests, including nuclear tion, 18 U.S.C.A. 8 7(1) (see n. 174, irlfra). The Fourth Circuit, in
explosions of all kinds. The free exchange of scientific in- overturning Escamilla's original conviction, decided the case without
speaking to the issue of jurisdiction. The proposed Federal Criminal
formation and personnel is provided for (Art. ID),and Code now under consideration deals with this type of situation, Criminal
provision is made for the meeting at suitable intervals of Justice Reform Act of 1975, 8 204.
36. Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the
33. 2 ~T~hiteman, supra, note 20 at 1250-53. Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other
34. [I9591 12 U.S.T. 794, 402 U.N.T.S. 71. Celestial Bodies, 18 U.S.T. 2410, T.I.A.S. 6347, 610 U.N.T.S. 205.