territorial sovereignty

Question 1

territory defined

Answer 1

Territory in international law means any area of the earth’s surface which is the subject of sovereign rights and interests.
 It is a definite part of the surface of the earth where the state normally exercises jurisdiction over persons or things to the exclusion of another state.

Question 2

The domain of a state, therefore, may be described as

Answer 2

 Terrestrial
 Fluvial or maritime
 Aerial

Question 3

WHY DETERMINE TERRITORY?

Answer 3

Territory is one of the fundamental attributes of a State. The exercise of sovereignty is predicated upon territory. With territory, the State could perform acts and be subject to duties which it could not perform and to which it would not be subject if it lacked territory.

Question 4

ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY The traditional modes of acquiring a territory of a State are:

Answer 4

 Discovery
  Occupation 
 Prescription 
 Cession
  Annexation
  Assimilation 
 Conquest

Question 5

Discovery

Answer 5

is the oldest method of acquiring title to territory
 Up to the 18th century, discovery alone was enough to establish a legal title
 “Physical” discovery or simple “visual apprehension,” is sufficient enough to establish a right of sovereignty over, or a valid title to terra nullius

Question 6

hinterland doctrine or the principle of continuity

Answer 6

“If a state has made a settlement, it has a right to assume sovereignty over all adjacent vacant territory, which is necessary to the integrity and security of the settlement.”

Question 7

BY OCCUPATION AND PRESCRIPTION

Answer 7

Acquisition of territory by prescription means continued occupation over a long period of time by one State of territory actually and originally belonging to another State.

Question 8

THE CASE OF ISLAND OF PALMAS ARBITRATION The Netherlands v. The United States (1928)

Answer 8

Both the United States laid claim to the ownership of the Island of Palmas. While the U.S. maintained that it was part of the Philippines, the Netherlands claimed it as their own. The claim of the U.S. was back up with the fact that the islands had been ceded by Spain by the Treaty of Paris in 1898, and as successor to the rights of Spain over the Philippines, it based its claim of title in the first place on discovery. On the part of the Netherlands, they claimed to have possessed and exercised rights of sovereignty over the island from 1677 or earlier to the present.

Question 9

THE KALAYAAN ISLAND GROUP

Answer 9

 By virtue of occupation as res mullus and exercise of jurisdiction, the Philippines formally claimed under Presidential Decree No. 1596 on 11 June 1978 title to the Kalayaan Island Group.  The Philippine claim was duly registered in the UN Secretariat on 20 May 1980 including the technical description of the boundaries.

Question 10

ACCRETION

Answer 10

Accretion is the process by which new land formations are legally accumulated to old ones.
It includes several geographic phenomena such as diversion of the river from where it previously flowed, the gradual deposit of soil by a river flowing past a shore or by an ocean along its coasts. Accretion was derived from the Roman Law principle that anything new added follows the status of the principal thing.
An addition to the river bank represents not only an addition to the territory of the State but also causes an outward extension of the marine frontier.

Question 11

ACCRETION v/s AVULSION

Answer 11

Slow and gradual deposit of slow by alluvium so as to modify river channel imperceptively.
Sudden and violent shift in the channel so as to leave the old river bed dry.

Question 12

CONQUEST AND ANNEXATION

Answer 12

With the coming into force of the United Nations Charter, the acquisition of territory by conquest may NO LONGER BE LEGAL under international law. To this day, however, some States still persist in acquiring territory by the use of force such as the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.

Question 13

CONQUEST AND ANNEXATION

Answer 13

With the coming into force of the United Nations Charter, the acquisition of territory by conquest may NO LONGER BE LEGAL under international law. To this day, however, some States still persist in acquiring territory by the use of force such as the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.

Question 14

CESSION

Answer 14

Cession may be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary cession of a territory is the transfer of sovereignty over a territory by the owner State to another State.
Since cession is a bilateral transaction, the ceding and the acquiring parties must be States.
Voluntary cession is made through a treaty which specifies the definite territory ceded. Cession may also be in the form of exchange of territory for another, or in the form of gift or donation, or devise.

Question 15

loss of territorial sovereignty

Answer 15

to the modes of acquiring sovereignty over territory just considered there correspond exactly similar methods of losing it.

1. dereliction (occupation)
2. by conquest(acquisitive)
3. by operation of nature (accretion)
4. by prescription
5. Revolt (separate from the above)
6. Succession (as a result of revolt)