Panama Canal Treaties 1977
The two Torrijos-Carter treaties, what each did, and why the United States never held sovereignty to transfer in 1999.
Two treaties were signed at Washington on 7 September 1977 and entered into force on 1 October 1979. The Panama Canal Treaty granted the United States, for its duration, the rights necessary to regulate transit and to manage, operate, maintain, improve, protect and defend the Canal, and it terminated by its own Article II(2) at noon, Panama time, on 31 December 1999.
Its language settles a claim that is routinely misstated. The Treaty recites that the parties acknowledge the Republic of Panama’s sovereignty over its territory, and Article I(2) has Panama grant those rights as territorial sovereign. The United States never held sovereignty over the Canal Zone to transfer, and what ended in 1999 was the grant of operating rights.
The companion Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal has no termination date, declares the Canal’s neutrality, and requires that tolls and other charges be just, reasonable and equitable. The full article will cover both instruments, the 1903 convention they replaced, and the constitutional basis of the Panama Canal Authority.