In December 1973, the Legal Bureau of the Department of External Affairs expressed the position of the Canadian government in the following terms: ‘Canada … claims that the waters of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago are internal waters of Canada, on an historical basis, although they have not been declared as such in any treaty or by any legislation’. This is taken to mean that Canada claims to have an historical title to those waters; the waters would be what are commonly called ‘historic waters’. Given Canada's position, this part examines the doctrine of historic waters and its applicability to the waters of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.