International Waterways

With respect to international marine traffic, canals joining areas of the high seas or waters leading to them are geographically in the same position as straits. However, the significant canals have been constructed in accordance with international treaties or later placed under conventional legal regimes. The Suez Canal, located in Egypt, and the Panama Canal are the two most important canals in international commerce.

The United States played the major role in the construction of the Panama Canal, which joins the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans across the Isthmus of Panama. The canal is over 40 miles long and has a minimum width of three hundred feet.

In 1903, after several European-financed efforts to build a canal across the isthmus had failed, the U.S. government negotiated the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty (T.S. No. 431, 33 Stat. 2234, 10 Bevans 663). Under this treaty the United States guaranteed the independence of Panama (which had just broken away from Colombia) and secured a perpetual lease on a ten-mile strip for the canal. Panama was to receive an initial payment of $10 million and an ANNUITY of $250,000, beginning in 1913.

In 1906, President THEODORE ROOSEVELT directed construction of the canal to begin under the supervision of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Panama Canal was completed in 1914 and officially opened by President WOODROW WILSON on July 12, 1920.

The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty stated that the canal was to be neutralized and free and open to vessels of commerce and war on terms of equality, and without discrimination as to tolls or conditions of passage. However, it did not mandate open access in times of war. The United States decided, in 1917, to close the canal and the territorial waters of the canal zone (the ten-mile-wide strip of land that contained the canal) to vessels of enemy states and their allies whenever the United States is a belligerent. This was done in World Wars I and II.

From the 1920s to the 1970s, the United States and Panama had many disputes concerning control of the Panama Canal Zone. Panamanians came to regard the zone as part of their country and believed that the 1903 treaty was unfairly favorable to the United States. In 1971, the two countries began negotiations for a new treaty to replace the 1903 agreement.

In 1977, Panama and the United States concluded the Treaty Governing the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal, and the Panama Canal Treaty (both Washington, D.C., 1977, in force 1979; Digest of United States Practice in International Law, 1978, at 1028–560). The treaties provided that the United States would relinquish control and administration of the canal to Panama by December 31, 1999, and stipulated an interim period for the training of, and progressive transfer of functions to, Panamanian personnel under the supervision of a mixed Panama Canal Commission.

The first treaty declared that the canal would be permanently neutralized (as would any other international waterway later constructed wholly or partly in Panamanian territory), with the object of securing it for peaceful transit in time of peace or of war for vessels of all nations on equal terms (arts. 1, 2). The right of passage

Spanish King Juan Carlos and former President Jimmy Carter shake hands at a December 1999 ceremony transferring control of the Panama Canal to Panama. President Mireya Moscoso of Panama (sitting) looks on.
AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

extends not only to merchant ships but to vessels of war and auxiliary vessels in noncommercial service of all nations "at all times," irrespective of their internal operations, means of propulsion, origin, destination, or armament (art. 3, § 1[e]).

In early December 1999, a United States delegation, headed by former U.S. president JIMMY CARTER (who signed the original treaty in 1977), attended the official transfer of the canal into Panamanian hands. Other attendees included Spain's King Juan Carlos, and the presidents of Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, and Mexico. As of 2000, it was estimated that approximately 1,400 ships pass through the canal annually.