
Arctic Oil and the Law of the Seize
There is a touch of the 19th century scramble to divide Africa among European colonial powers in Russia's decision to drop a capsule containing a Russian flag on the Arctic sea floor not far from the North Pole on August 2nd. In preparation for the 1885 Berlin Conference which was to draw the boundaries of the African colonies, there was a mad rush to place national flags on all the commercial outposts so that France, England, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Portugal could claim prior possession of the area.