Antarctic Documents Database

About ATADD

ATADD contains national and international documents relating to Antarctic law and policy. It is based on documents collected by international lawyer, Bill Bush. Between 1982 and 2003, many of the documents were published by Oceana in: W M Bush, Antarctica and International Law: A Collection of Inter-State and National Documents. These eight volumes are a cornerstone of research into Antarctic law. They brought together otherwise dispersed documents and were supplemented by comprehensive cross-referencing and expert annotations that explain the documents’ significance and historical context.

By making the full collection accessible, ATADD is much greater in scope than the items published by Oceana. It includes documents from over 30 countries in several languages. There are currently over 4600 database entries, but the quantity of individual documents included far exceeds that number and there are over 75,000 scanned pages. ATADD complements existing Antarctic document sources which include the collections at the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, various national archives, and other research institutions. A grant by the Australian Research Council (ARC) made possible the digitisation of the collection under the ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities funding scheme. The Bush volumes, long out of print, are included in ATADD by permission of Oxford University Press, USA.

History of the collection

The various national and international documents that comprise ATADD were collected over a number of years to support the Antarctic law and policy interests of Bill Bush. The immense effort to collect the original documents is described in the Bush volumes and is clearly evident from the breadth of the material presented.

In the absence of a central repository, access to Antarctic documents had been difficult for researchers and practitioners in the field. Production of the four original hardbound volumes was particularly timely because of the then concurrent expansion of interest in Antarctica: for example, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) had just entered into force; diplomatic negotiations were underway on a minerals regime (CRAMRA, which never entered into force); there was conflict in the South Atlantic; accessions to the Treaty were increasing; and growing attention to Antarctic affairs in the United Nations. Understanding these developments was greatly helped by access to key documents. The work continued with the collation of material for the four loose-leaf binders which provided new material and updates. The creation of ATADD makes the full collection accessible.

One of the great achievements of the Bush volumes was the bringing together of otherwise dispersed documents and the publication of many of them in full or in extract. Most significantly, Bill’s comprehensive cross-referencing and expert annotations explain the significance and historical context of the published documents.

In 2016, the collection of documents was given to Australian Antarctic scholar Andrew Jackson to support research into the evolution of law and policy in the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). A subsequent ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities funding scheme grant made possible the digitisation of the collection. That project took just over one year to complete and the full document collection now appears in ATADD, including the previously published content.

As the ATS is central to the study of contemporary Antarctic law and policy, access to the records of the Treaty forums is essential. Since 2004, the Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty has made available many of the records of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings and related information. But even today, the centralised Treaty records are incomplete. Since 1982, documents related to the regulation of Antarctic marine living resources have been captured in the CCAMLR database, but there are also some gaps. Many of the missing ATS and CCAMLR documents can be found in ATADD. Additionally, the Bush collection includes national and inter-governmental documents not generated within the ATS. This database therefore complements existing document collections at the Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty in Buenos Aires, the Hobart headquarters of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, various national archives, and those at other research institutions. With the Bush collection as its core, it is hoped that ATADD will become an ever-growing database of Antarctic law and policy documents to which other researchers contribute and from which even more researchers gain benefit.

Digital documents

The database provides PDF copies of the documents that can be read, searched, downloaded and printed for personal research and study purposes. The scans are faithful reproductions, as good as the scanning techniques allowed. Users will note that many documents contain annotations, crossing out, etc – these have retained the integrity of the work of Bill Bush. Generally, such markings do not affect the legibility of the primary document. The quality of document scanning for this database is very high, obviating the need to access the original documents. In some cases, the scanning process may have inadvertently included unrelated documents (such as the reverse side of recycled paper). These should be ignored. Bona fide researchers needing to resolve scanning errors should contact Andrew Jackson (andrewj@utas.edu.au).

Further information

Questions and suggestions concerning the database are welcome using the feedback form.

Acknowledgments

This project was made possible by:

• Bill and Mary Bush, Canberra
• University of Tasmania Library
• Prof Marcus Haward, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Hobart (Lead Chief Investigator)
• Dr Jeffrey McGee, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Hobart (Chief Investigator)
• Prof Timothy Stephens, University of Sydney (Chief Investigator)
• Prof Stuart Kaye, University of Wollongong (Chief Investigator)
• Prof Shirley Scott, University of New South Wales at Canberra (Chief Investigator)
• Andrew Jackson (Project team and document custodian)
• Kim Shaw (Project team)
• Barbara Zimmerman (Project team)
• Ian Apted (Project team)
• Juliet Beale, University of Tasmania Library (Consultant)
• Document scanning was done by Steve Ktori and staff at Acrodata Tasmania Pty Ltd
• Antarctica and International Law: A Collection of Inter-State and National Documents (volumes I-IV, binders I-IV) is reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press, USA.
• This project was partially funded by the Australian Government through an Australian Research Council Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities Grant (LE180100022)
• Header photographs of Antarctica © Andrew Jackson