ABSTRACT
On October 12, 1984, a five-member Chamber of the international court of justice at the Hague delivered its judgement in the case concerning the delimitation of the United States – Canadian lateral maritime boundary in the Gulf of Maine and seaward over the rich Georges Bank fishing grounds. The parties had brought their dispute for arbitration under the terms of a Special Agreement signed in 1979. August 26, 1982, was fixed as the date for the submission of Memorials by both Canada and the United States. To begin the construction of a delimitation line the Chamber established what it considered to be the coastal areas of the United States and Canada fronting on the Gulf of Maine. Historical geographers would approach Georges Bank as an enormously significant field of human activity, and recognise that an understanding of those activities depends on the skilful reconstruction of both the area's past phenomenal environment and past behavioural environment.
