TSINGHUA CHINA LAW REVIEW
The Deformation of the Law of Territory between 1880 and 1930 - Which Implications for Selected Present Day Controversies
Created on：2023-05-09 21:09
PV：1917
Abstract:
The international law of territorial acquisition is firmly entrenched around the principle that evidence of state activity – effectively exclusive state control – is an essential prerequisite to a territorial claim. The stance is repeatedly reiterated in international tribunals. This historical survey argues that the present legal position was given definite form in 1928 with the Island of Palmas Case. However, a broader survey of international legal history shows that there was never unanimity of legal opinion excluding an alternative – and rather obvious – possibility that land belongs to the people traditionally inhabiting it. The concept of humanity is to be opposed to that of the state. Such a view had great resonance in the West from the 16th to the 19th century but was obscured by the rise of Western imperialism. The article considers how to recover the original humanist tradition of international law. It concludes by reviewing two contemporary issues – the Palestine-Israel conflict and the transnational boundary dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria, in order to place this concept in the wider context of the history of the international law of territorial acquisition.
