September 28, 1945 marked the time when the U.S. ventured in the exploitation of sea resources such as oil and gas. President Truman issued a proclamation in favour of the country to explore and exploit these minerals under United States policy (Frazier 2009, p.3). The Truman Proclamation firmly consolidated the distinction between the question of the legal regime governing fisheries resources beyond the territorial sea and the regime governing mineral resources. As far as the legal concept of the continental shelf was concerned, its main characteristics were established as a natural prolongation of the state’s land territory (Currie, Forces & Oosterveld 2007, p.403). The Proclamation established a clear separation between the territorial sea and shelf, in which the coastal state could not extend its sovereignty, but only under its jurisdiction and control. According to Byers (1999, p.91), the Truman Proclamation had been linked to the end of the social and economic needs of World War II where the development of technology in the United States began to generate national interest in exploration and exploitation of off-shore oil fields. This had very significant legal implications, bearing in mind that for hundreds of years, sea resources had not been exploited under any regulation by any state.
Following this proclamation, the U.S. Congress enacted legislation in 1953 in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), which addressed the control of resource exploitation at the continental shelf by both the federal and state authorities. By so doing, the government wanted to ensure that natural resources at the coast and in the sea were exploited but in the right and legal manner. This perhaps would lead t...
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...conomic fishing zone (EFZ) and 24 nm for contiguous coastal zones by the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (Currier, Forcese & Oosterveld 2007, p.404). This saw the eventual transmission of U.S. views to other parts of the world since the UN had adopted the same laws.
In conclusion, the regime of law on the continental shelf convention in regards to exploitation of natural resource was historically developed from President Truman Proclamation. After the US proclaimed it sovereignty to utilize sea’s natural resources, the country embarked on coming up with new laws that sought to ensure control of these sea portions. The Truman Proclamation can be said to have affected many legislative initiatives all over the world with regard to use of the sea subsoil and the waters in general. Most of these legal effects are still felt to hitherto.
... laws governing the activities of foreign states in its EEZ. Ecuador’s blatant violation demonstrates their lack of respect for UN law. Donald Thomas was simply conducting his business to preserve his quality of life and his rights were infringed upon. To allow this case to go unresolved endangers the livelihood of many more fishermen. Ruling in favor of Ecuador would set a precedent that has far-reaching consequences: Exclusive Economic Zones are territorial waters. As a result, rights would be granted to States in their territorial waters that were not intended to be by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The violence exhibited by the Ecuadorian navy shows a lack of restraint parallel to the actions of rogue nations. The United States continues to insist that Ecuador did not meet the customary international standard in handling this situation.
After temporarily resolving the problems of Reconstruction and Industrialization, Americans began to resume the course of expansion. The horrors of the Civil War had interrupted the original Manifest Destiny that began in the 1840s. Now, as pioneers settled the last western frontiers, expansionists looked yet farther to the west -- toward Asia and the Pacific. American ships had long been active in the Pacific. The New England whaling fleets scoured the ocean in search of their prey. As ships crossed the vast ocean to trade in Asia, islands in the Pacific became important stops for coal, provisions, and repairs. In the South Pacific, the American navy negotiated with awestruck natives for the rights to build bases on the islands of Midway and Samoa. This practice had been going on for a while. The Hawaiian Islands, which lie closest to the American mainland, had long been an important stop for the Pacific fleet.
of water to the west of the Outer Banks of North Carolina for the Pacific
United Nations , "United Nations and Convention on the Law of the Sea:Division for Ocean Affairs and the LAw of the Sea." Accessed November 27, 2013. http://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/UNCLOS-TOC.htm.
The late 1800’s was a watershed moment for the United States, during which time the Industrial Revolution and the desire for expansion brought about through Manifest Destiny, began to run parallel. Following the end of the Spanish-American war, the United States found itself with a wealth of new territory ceded to it from the dying Spanish empire. The issue of what to do with these new lands became a source of debate all the way up to the U.S. Congress. Men like Albert J. Beveridge, a Senator from Indiana, advocated the annexation, but not necessarily the incorporation of these new l...
Through the use of the documents and events during two major-expansion time periods (1776-1880) and 1880-1914), I will display both the continuation and departure trends of United States expansionism. The departure from previous expansionism (up to 1880) developed alongside the tremendous changes and amplifications of United States power (in government, economics, and military.) The growth in strength and size of the United States' navy gave the country many more opportunities to grow, explore, and expand both in size and money. The better range and build of ships allowed the U.S. to enter the far-east "trade and money" lands of the Philippines (eventually a territory) and China. Because of the huge production of agricultural goods and the need for outputs and markets for these goods, the United States needed to find other places for shipping, trading, buying, and sellingand the far east was just the place.... ...
When the United States government drowned Celilo Falls, it compensated the tribes for flooding their fishing sites. But it didn’t, purchase their fishing rights. Those rights, as set forth in the 1855 treaties, were not affected when the government paid for tribal fishing sites, but the tribes' economy was destroyed.
----. Monroe’s Embassy, of the Conduct of the Government in Relation to our Claims to the Navigation of the Mississippi. Ed. David Lee Clark. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1952. pp. 268-270.
United States v. Smiley, et al.. (n.d) retrieved February 17 2014, from NOAA Coastal Services Center Web Site: http://www.csc.noaa.gov/data/Documents/OceanLawSearch/U.S.v.Smiley_CaseSummary_PDF.pdf
Before the 1970s, environmental policy was not the more publicized issue that it is today. After the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969, the environmental movement really took off. The federal government took the situation into their hands and paid more attention to environmental policy than they had been doing in the past. While the states still have quite a bit of power when it com...
Truman’s accomplishments in his domestic policy were impressive, considering the hardships the nation was experiencing as World War II came to an end, and the resistance of Congress (which was greatly made up of Republicans and conservatives) to liberalism. The president was able to pas...
“The conversation of our natural resources and their proper use underlines almost every other problem in our national life,” Theodore Roosevelt. Americans’ dependence upon petroleum-based energy sources has required the United States to consider a variety of options to fulfill [the] ever-increasing energy needs, even drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge [ANWR] (Smith). The controversial question on whether or not to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge reserve has been in battle since its establishment. Drilling in ANWR would cause severe damage as it is a danger to its native plants and animals as the land is their home and birthing ground, the land discussed to be open to drilling will not be the only land set to a path of destruction, and along with the use and distribution of the oil found, as of how much could be discovered and if it is worth losing precious land all to a nations greed of oil.
I will be presenting the first affirmative of today’s debate. The United Stated federal government should substantially increase its non-military exploration and/or development of the Earth’s oceans. Before I go further I would like to define the key terms of today’s debate. The United States federal government is defined as the system of government in the Constitution which is based on the separation of powers among three branches: the executive, the legislative and the judicial. The ocean is defined as the whole body of salt water that covers nearly three fourths of the surface of the earth. To increase means to become larger in amount or number. Nonmilitary means not belonging to, characteristic of, or involving the armed forces. Exploration
Naomi Klein’s article “After the Spill” in the January 2011 edition of Nation magazine discusses a scientific excursion by boat in the northern section of the Gulf of Mexico. According to David Hollander, the marine geochemist from the University of South Florida, the trip’s purpose was to go “fishing for oil” and, if oil was present, to assess its effect on the water and marine life in the Gulf of Mexico (Klein 12).
...li, Brita. "Defender of the Seas." E: The Environmental Magazine 23.1 (2012): 18-25. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.