Chapter 2: The traditional modalities of AoTS

Question 1

Discovery

Answer 1

Discovery alone without subsequent act was not enough

Question 2

Occupation

Answer 2

Occupation is a state’s intentional appropriation
of sovereignty over territory treated as a terra nullius, which is territory that does not belong
to any state

Question 3

Cession

Answer 3

Cession is defined as “the transfer for sovereignty over state territory by the owner-state to
another state” or “the peaceful transfer of territory from one sovereign to another.”

Question 4

Accretion

Answer 4

Accretion is a method of acquiring territory due to natural causes which may result in the
increase or enlargement of the land territory of a state

Question 5

Conquest

Answer 5

Conquest constitutes an act of force by which, in time of war, a belligerent occupies a part or the whole of the territory of the enemy state with the intention of extending its own national sovereignty over that territory.

Question 6

Conquest’s citeria to satishfied lawful conquest

Answer 6

(1) There has to be a
taking of territory by force during war and the victor must physically occupy a part or whole
of the territory of the enemy state in order to annex it.
(2) This occupation must be done with the intention of extending its own national sovereignty over that territory.
(3) The control over the conquered territory has to be effective and uncontested.

Question 7

Prescription

Answer 7

A state has been considered to be the lawful owner even of those parts of its territory of which originally it took possession wrongfully, provided that the possessor has been in undisturbed possession for so long as to create the general conviction that the present condition of things is in conformity with international order.

Question 8

Symbolic Activities

Answer 8

The symbolic activities were seen as representing the actual occupation of possession, such as hoisting or planting the national flag, firing a salute or erecting a cross of a monument.

Question 9

Contiguity

Answer 9

A state which is closest to an unappropriated territory should have the title over it (hinterland doctrine)

Question 10

Contiguity’s citerias

Answer 10

(1) the island lying within their territorial waters can be claimed;
(2) a cluster of islands can be claimed as an entire group

Question 11

Display of sovereignty or effective occupation

Answer 11

The exercise or display of sovereignty must be peaceful, actual, sufficient to confer a valid title to territory, and continuous

Question 12

11.1. Peaceful

Answer 12

(1) the initial assumption of sovereignty must be original: means that there is the non-existence of
competing claims or acts of sovereignty right from the beginning;
(2) it should not take the form of usurping another country’s existing occupation: means that make sure that the territory does not belong to any other state.

Question 13

11.2. Actual

Answer 13

(1) it must not just be a mere paper claim pretended to be an act of sovereignty;
(2) it must not require that there must be its “noticeable impact in every nook and cranny of the territory”

Question 14

11.3. Sufficient

Answer 14

Sufficient of state activity to confer a valid title to sovereignty varies with the circumstances of each territory

Question 15

11.4. Continious

Answer 15

This shows that intermittence and discontinuity in the display or exercise of the state activity were found by the tribunals to be compatible with the maintenance of the right, given the circumstances of those cases

Question 16

Uti Possidetis

Answer 16

Uti Possidetis is based on the community policy of maintenance of stable territorial regimes. It means that the newly created states in the post-colonial period accepted the same boundaries as the colonial territories for which they substituted