Presumed Innocent: Navigation Rights and Risk-Based Activities in the Passamaquoddy Bay‪.‬

INTRODUCTION The Passamaquoddy Bay is not the first place that comes to mind asa setting for international controversy. A fishing and tourist area, well-known for its scenic beauty, the Passamaquoddy Bay is also bisected by the Canada-United States border. (1) Located at the Western entrance to the larger Bay of Fundy and terminating at the mouth of the Saint Croix River (an international watercourse that defines the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick), the Passamaquoddy Bay is now also the site for two proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals on the Maine side of the Bay. (2) LNG terminals are controversial at the best of times, given the environmental and human safety risks posed by LNG terminals and the transport of LNG over water. (3) In the case of the Passamaquoddy Bay proposals, the controversy is compounded because the only shipping access to the proposed LNG terminal sites in the United States is through the Head Harbour Passage, a narrow channel of water located between Deer Island and Campobello Island in the Passamaquoddy Bay, both of which are Canadian. The Canadian government has maintained that the waters of the Head Harbour Passage are "sovereign Canadian waters" and, as a consequence, Cariada takes the position that it has the unilateral right to control navigation through the Head Harbour Passage. (4) The United States, on the other hand, takes the position that the Head Harbour Passage is a strait used for international navigation and subject to the right of non-suspendable innocent passage. (5)