U.S. fishery negotiations with Canada and Mexico

Abstract

In the last decade, the world has witnessed a fundamental reorientation of posture toward marine resources as evidenced by consensus in the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) and the near universal move toward fishery jurisdictions of 200 nautical miles (370 km). These and other non‐marine‐specific economic and political pressures impose a new constellation of constraints on North American fishery relations. This has resulted in disharmonies on two borders.

This paper, then, addresses the form of binational fishery negotiations between the United States and her two neighbors. One section presents a general model of the binational negotiation process. The next section introduces the institutional and political context of U.S.‐Canada relations, and then applies the negotiation model to the evolution of West Coast salmon deliberations. In a parallel fashion, the following section focuses on U.S.‐Mexico relations and the tuna, shrimp, and anchovy fisheries. The last section concludes with remarks on future directions for North American binational fishery relations.     

Transit rights and U.S. security interests in international straits: The “straits debate”; revisited

Abstract

The issue of transit rights through international straits overlapped by an extension of territorial seas to 12nm was the focal point of intense debate between the United States and straits states during the formative stages of UNCLOS III. Even though the ICNT provisions on transit through straits reflect basic U.S. navigation and security interests, this paper argues that the issue of transit rights through straits is not a dead issue. Straits states may either refuse to ratify a LOS treaty incorporating ICNT provisions on transit passage, or the attempts to obtain a comprehensive LOS treaty may end in failure. In either case, the United States may be forced to accept a right of innocent passage through international straits. The conclusions of this paper are that the security of transit will be determined by political rather than legal considerations, and that U.S. security interests in straits are not undermined by a right of innocent passage.     

Disparate fisheries: Problems for the law of the sea conference and beyond

Abstract

The search for a uniform international fisheries regime at the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea will be impeded by the fact that the conditions between different fisheries and different fishery regions are greatly dissimilar. This is one of the conclusions emerging from a series of working papers produced by the Program of International Studies of Fisheries Arrangements undertaken by Resources for the Future, Inc. The working paper on the North Pacific shows that there are only a handful of States with an interest in the fisheries; that most of the States are highly developed; and that there has been a long history of fishery agreements. For the West African region, however, there are about forty. States involved, about half of which are local, developing States and the other half are mostly developed States from distant waters. Here the fisheries have been subjected to considerable recent pressures, with catches by the distant‐water States increasing about five‐fold in the past decade. In the Indian Ocean, with the exception of tuna, most of the fish stocks are still not fully utilized and have attracted almost no attention from States outside the region. Tuna fisheries, both in the Indian Ocean and elsewhere throughout the world, are approaching the limits of maximum sustainable yields, but the number and size of vessels continues to increase at a rapid rate. The global mobility of tuna vessels creates particularly difficult problems for the UN conferees. The disparity among these situations is likely to provide severe restrictions on the uniformity of general rules and principles that might be acceptable at the Conference.     

United States policy on international straits

Abstract

United States policy on international straits is dictated by the vital importance to U.S. national security interests of unimpeded commercial and military transit through, over, and under sea lines of communication. Although perceived flaws in the deep seabed mining regime of the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention precluded U.S. signature or ratification of that document, the United States considers that the navigational articles of the convention reflect customary international law. Accordingly, U.S. policy on international straits is premised on recognition of and respect for the balance of interests set forth in the navigational articles of the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention.     

Canadian government financial intervention in a marine fishery: The case of newfoundland, 1972/73–1980/81

Abstract

Trade in fish products between Canada and the United States has been the subject of extensive legal activity in the latter country. United States fishing interests have repeatedly attempted to utilize provisions in U.S. law and in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to have countervailing duties imposed on imports of Canadian fish products, the prices of which are alleged to be artificially depressed by Canadian government financial support of the industry.

This paper summarizes the state of U.S. and international law on countervailing duties, and surveys recent legal activity on the matter. It then presents hitherto uncollected evidence on government financial support of a major Canadian fishery, the Newfoundland groundfishery. It is found that the total value of expenditures was equal to 31 percent of the value of total fish products in 1980/81. However, subsidies as defined by the U.S. International Trade Administration, in accordance with U.S. law and the GATT, amounted to only 4.5 percent of the value of total fish products in that year.     

Indian Potato (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Ipomoea pandurata</Emphasis>, Convolvulaceae)—A Record of Confusion<Superscript>1</Superscript>

Indian Potato ( Ipomoea pandurata , Convolvulaceae)—A Record of Confusion. Once European explorers began sending back plants from distant lands, confusion developed regarding their identities. Among these was Ipomoea pandurata, which native peoples in the eastern United States considered to be a purgative. Unfortunately, edible plants like potatoes were confused with I. pandurata, and by the early 1900s Americans and Europeans began writing that indigenous peoples also ate its roots. The literature for the late 1900s into the 2000s mostly reports that I. pandurata is edible. Although no documented use for food by pre-European cultures in the Americas has been found, the myth persists that the roots were eaten on a regular basis.     

Encalypta brevipes and E. brevicolla: new records from North America,Iceland, Great Britain and Europe

Abstract

Encalypta brevipes Schljak. is reported in North America from north-western-most Oregon, United States; from Iceland; and in Europe from the Alps in southeastern France, and the High Tatra Mountains in Czechoslovakia. Encalypta brevicolla (B.S.G.) Bruch ex Aongstr. is reported from southernmost coastal Oregon, United States and east-central Scotland, Great Britain.     

Resettled and unsettled: Syrian refugees and the intersection of race and legal status in the United States

ABSTRACT

In this article, I examine how the intersection of legal status and racialization shapes immigrant’s sense of security; or of legal and interpersonal safety. I draw on an ethnography of Syrian refugees who hold a permanent legal status, and who entered the United States in 2015, as Donald Trump was launching his campaign, amplifying anti-Muslim and anti-refugee sentiment. Following refugee experiences from their arrival, through the issuance of the first executive order banning travel in January 2017, I show how this group, racialized as Muslim and Arab, was categorized as a threat to national security. I also capture the uneven way they came to recognize their racialization. While a permanent legal status is likely a necessary condition for feeling a sense of security in the United States, I argue that it is an insufficient one. I show that Syrian refugees’ racialization attenuated their sense of security despite their legal status.     

Ocean thermal energy: Potentials and pitfalls

Abstract

Thermal energy in vast reaches of the world's oceans lies waiting to be tapped by a fuel‐hungry world. The United States— the one heavily industrialized nation with “OTEC”; waters lapping its shores—is actively developing the technology; Japan and a European consortium are also pressing forward. The resource may be of practical value soon to favorably situated islands (e.g., Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba) and Third World countries. Meaningful contributions to mainland U.S. electricity needs are almost certainly a decade or more in the future, and conjectural. Environmental dangers loom if OTEC is too extensively and hurriedly deployed, and for the United States it is not a substitute for nuclear fission and fossil fuel in meeting immediate energy needs.     

Highly migratory species in the new law of the sea

Abstract

The 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea provides for coastal state sovereign rights over all living resources within the exclusive economic zone, but in a separate article makes special provision for so‐called highly migratory species (HMS) that are specifically identified in an Annex to the treaty. This paper examines the basic treaty provisions concerning all fisheries in the EEZ, highlighting the position of HMS, and then devotes detailed consideration to the regulation of fishing for HMS in light of Article 64 and other articles of the treaty. Discussion centers upon the requirements of Article 64, including the duty of cooperation and its subject matter, the meaning and consequence of failure to cooperate, the manner of cooperation under Article 64, and the application of the treaty to enclaves of high seas. Attention is given to the application to HMS of specific obligations under Articles 61 and 62, authority over HMS fishing within archipelagic waters, and the use of fish aggregation devices. There is also consideration of the relationship between the 1982 Convention and customary law regarding HMS, with particular attention to the position vis‐a‐vis the Convention of the United States as a nonsignatory who does not recognize coastal state jurisdiction over tuna but claims sovereign rights over all other highly migratory species within its recently proclaimed exclusive economic zone.     

Who’s in conflict? Racialization of Puerto Ricans in relation to other Latinxs in the New York Times, 2010–2015

ABSTRACT

Puerto Rican migration to the United States has skyrocketed as a result of various political and economic factors faced in Puerto Rico. I focus my attention on how Puerto Ricans are represented in newspapers through narratives of belonging, exclusion and/or perceived threat. I seek to answer is: how are Puerto Ricans and other Latinx groups framed in relation to each other in the New York Times? To answer this query, I perform a content analysis of the paper of record, the New York Times. I argue that Puerto Ricans are not only framed as in conflict in relation to other Latinos, while also being framed as possessing some sort of colour capital that can be transferred over to particular spaces. The NYT constructs boundaries that reinforce while also transform what groups are perceived as threats.     

United States interests in the Arctic region

Abstract

The Arctic is a vast, forbidding and relatively unknown region. It covers about 14 million square kilometers of which 5.2 square kilometers is ice covered in summer and 11.7 million square kilometers in winter. It is a highly strategic region, and is the shortest distance between the two superpowers. It also contains vast resources, including oil, gas, and coal. Over 830,000 native peoples inhabit the Arctic Rim and have a culture that goes back 4500 years. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is generally applicable to the Arctic Ocean and has a special provision for ice‐covered areas. However, there are several unresolved jurisdictional and navigational problems between the United States and other Arctic Rim States concerning the Arctic's waters, including the Chukchi Sea, the Beaufort Sea and the Northwest Passage. Although the United States has paid some attention to the Arctic region in recent years, the Arctic still remains a relatively low priority interest for national policy and operational programs.     

United States patent prior art rules and the neem controversy: a case of subject-matter imperialism?

A recent United States patent covering an improvement to the naturally-occurring pesticide in neem tree seed oil might have been rejected as 'obvious' if United States patent law recognized certain forms of prior inventive activity on a par with similar activity occurring within the United States' borders. But the US only recognizes prior 'knowledge, use or invention' as blocking a claim to a patent when those activities take place within US borders, or are evidenced by publications accessible in the US, or, more commonly, by foreign patents. Neither of these last forms of tangible 'prior art' is likely to be available to block patents on biodiversity inventions – most notably because of the fact that most developing nations do not allow patents on pharmaceutical or agricultural inventions, categories subsuming most biodiversity-related advances. Although the United States patent only has direct force within the United States, it is nonetheless highly significant to this global dispute, since the United States and other developed nations stand to be the major markets for the end-products of neem. This paper argues that the border-drawing distinctions in US patent law are archaic, counter to stated policy directives and are disproportionately influencing the developing world's stance towards GATT and its intellectual property rights provisions.     

International Law and Politics in U.S. Policymaking: The United States and the Svalbard Dispute

This article explains the position(s) of the United States in the maritime dispute adjacent to Svalbard. While the United States has regarded Norway's exclusive claim to the natural resources outside Svalbard as everything from “wishful thinking” to legally plausible, Washington maintains that it may have rights under the 1920 Svalbard Treaty to exploit the maritime zones adjacent to the archipelago. The U.S. reservation is the result of assessments and reassessments of legal considerations as well as national interests.     

Deep seabed mining: A definition of the problem

Abstract

The prospects for deep seabed mining in this century appear remote. The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea was closed for signature on December 10, 1982. As of that date, 155 nation‐states and four entities had signed, but not the United States and some others. Since that time, the United States has endeavored without much success to develop a “Reciprocating States Agreement”; that would legitimate seabed mining with or without the U.N. Convention. On the other hand, the Preparatory Commission has met six times and is making only modest progress without the participation of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Federal Republic of Germany.     

The offshore jurisdiction of the states of the United States and the provinces of Canada—A comparison

Abstract

The coastal state has jurisdiction over the resources located in the seas and seabed adjacent to its coast. In federal states the question has arisen as to whether the rights in those resources are to be held by the national government or by the subsidiary territorial governments. It has been the focus of political activity and court litigation in the United States and Canada. This paper reviews in detail the status of the offshore claims of the states of the United States and the provinces of Canada. In delimiting these boundaries two systems of law have become relevant—modern public international law and historic common law. Both systems of law have advantages and disadvantages for the courts and interested parties. While the United States has chosen a route that relies very heavily on modern public international law, the Canadian situation is less clear. Litigation now in progress may resolve this issue in Canada by court decree unless a political settlement is reached first. A recent agreement between the Federal Government of Canada and the Gov eminent of Nova Scotia which calls for joint management and revenue sharing may point the way toward such a settlement.     

A comparativist manifesto for international migration studies

Abstract

Drawing on thirteen years of fieldwork among Mexican migrants in the United States and Mexico and comparisons of immigration policy throughout the Americas, this paper systematically elaborates the advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of multi-sited studies. A reformed logic of the Millian methods of agreement and difference takes into account the causal connections among the cases. I call for a ‘homeland dissimilation’ perspective and comparisons of internal and international migration as a way to take off the self-imposed national blinders that pre-determine many of the conclusions of the assimilation and even transnationalism literatures.     

Streptococcal Superantigen,Mitogenic Factor,and Pyrogenic Exotoxin B Expressed by Streptococcus pyogenes

Abstract

Streptococcus pyogenes is a Gram-positive human bacterial pathogen that causes pharyngitis, tonsillitis, skin infections (impetigo, erysipelis, and other forms of pyoderma), acute rheumatic fever (ARF), scarlet fever (SF), poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis (PSGN), a streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS), and necrotizing fasciitis. These infections are some of the most economically and medically important conditions that affect humans. For example, globally, ARF is the most common cause of pediatric heart disease. It is estimated that in India more than six million school-aged children suffer from rheumatic heart disease (1). In the United States, “sore throat” is the third most common reason for physician office visits and S. pyogenes is recovered from about 30% of children with this complaint (2). It has been estimated that there are 25–35 million cases of streptococcal pharyngitis per year in the United States, and these infections cause 1–2 billion dollars per year in direct health care costs (3,4). Although the continued great morbidity and mortality caused by S. pyogenes in developing nations, the significant health care financial burden attributable to group A streptococci in the United States, and increasing levels of antibiotic resistance (5), have highlighted the need for a fuller understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of streptococcal infection, it has been the relatively recent intercontinental increase in streptococcal disease frequency and severity (6,7) that has resulted in renewed interest in S. pyogenes virulence factors and host-parasite interactions.     

Is there a post-racism? On David Theo Goldberg’s conjunctural analysis of the post-racial

ABSTRACT

I comment on David Theo Goldberg’s Are We all Postracial Yet? by interpreting it as a programmatic essay towards a new conjunctural analysis of a globalizing racism, and as an emerging globalizing dialogue against racism. In the spirit of Goldberg’s book I relate these two modes of critical engagement in order to open a global perspective through which a relational understanding of racism can be formulated with respect to two neoliberal contexts, continental Europe and the United States. To this end I draw on the work of Étienne Balibar and in particular his early consideration of ‘neo-racism’.     

Municipal legislation for exploitation of the deep seabed

Abstract

This study traces the evolution of municipal legislation for the deep seabed in the United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany, and considers what the United States seeks to gain and what it may possibly lose through its recent enactment of the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act. The study concludes that the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral‐Resources Act will ensure for the United States that the minerals of the deep seabed are (if they can be) available when needed, and will strengthen the negotiating position of the United States in UNCLOS III vis‐à‐vis a proposed seabed regime which it perceives as inefficient toward the development of manganese nodules, and unacceptable in the system of governance it promotes. Passage of the Act, it is concluded, will probably not result in a breakdown of the Law of the Sea negotiations. It is thought it will give rise to a legal challenge, the outcome of which is difficult to predict. Finally, it is asserted that political/economic opposition to the Act will be mitigated by the reasonableness of the Act, its provision for delayed implementation, and the desire of many nations to conclude a successful Law of the Sea Treaty.