108 



COMMONWEALTH OF 



THE NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS 



Statement of Jesus C. Borja 



June 1, 1995 



a bargained-for exchange of compromises and concessions, no 

 grant of powers or property should be implied when none is set 

 out in the document. One need only look at the Covenant provi- 

 sions on military land rights afforded to the Federal Government 

 to see the specificity with which a grant is made in the Covenant 



to realize that no grant of proprietary or other rights over 



17 

 fisheries resources was intended. 



The division of jurisdiction between the Federal and Common- 

 wealth governments over the fisheries in the sea surrounding the 

 Northern Marianas should conform to international law and prac- 

 tice on the subject. This is especially so because the political 

 status relationship between the Northern Marianas and the United 

 States was negotiated while the United States administered the 

 islands under the United Nations Trusteeship Agreement. 



Report of the Joint Drafting Committee on the Negotiating 

 History of the Covenant, at C-3 (1975) (comment on Covenant Sec. 

 505(b)), reprinted in Hearings before the Subcommittee on Terri- 

 torial and Insular Affairs of the House Committee on Interior and 

 Insular Affairs on H.J. Res. 549 et al . to Approve the "Covenant 

 to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands," 

 94th Cong., 1st Sess. 374, 376 (1975). 



17 



Not only are three lengthy sections of the Covenant, Sees. 



802-804, devoted to military land rights, but a separate "Techni- 

 cal Agreement Regarding Use of Land to Be Leased by the United 

 States in the Northern Mariana Islands" was executed simulta- 

 neously with the Covenant. 



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