New from the University of Calgary Press:
A Historical and Legal Study of Sovereignty in the Canadian North: Terrestrial Sovereignty, 1870-1939 (Nov. 2014), by the late
Gordon W. Smith, edited by
P. Whitney Lackenbauer (St. Jerome's University). The Press explains:
Gordon W. Smith, PhD, dedicated much of his life to researching
Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic. A historian by training, his 1952
dissertation from Columbia University on "The Historical and Legal
Background of Canada's Arctic Claims" remains a foundational work on the
topic, as does his 1966 chapter "Sovereignty in the North: The Canadian
Aspect of an International Problem," in R. St. J. Macdonald's The Arctic Frontier.
This work is the first in a project to edit and publish Smith's
unpublished opus a manuscript on "A Historical and Legal Study of
Sovereignty in the Canadian North and Related Law of the Sea Problems."
Written over three decades (yet incomplete at the time of his death in
2000), this work may well be the most comprehensive study on the nature
and importance of the Canadian North in existence.
Volume 1: Terrestrial Sovereignty provides the
most comprehensive documentation yet available on the post-Confederation
history of Canadian sovereignty in the north. As Arctic sovereignty and
security issues return to the forefront of public debate, this
invaluable resource provides the foundation upon which we may expand our
understanding of Canada's claims from the original transfers of the
northern territories in 1870 and 1880 through to the late twentieth
century. The book provides a wealth of detail, ranging from
administrative formation and delineation of the northern territories
through to other activities including government expeditions to northern
waters, foreign whaling, the Alaska boundary dispute, northern
exploration between 1870 and 1918, the background of Canada's sector
claim, the question concerning Danish sovereignty over Greenland and its
relation to Canadian interests, the Ellesmere Island affair, the
activities of American explorers in the Canadian North, and the Eastern
Arctic Patrol. The final chapter examines the Eastern Greenland case and
its implications for Canada.
Free PDFs of individual chapters are available for download
here, at the Press's website.
