International Law

State Territory and Territorial Sovereignty

Semester 5
Course Instructor: Sitwat Waqar Bokhari
Department of Humanities & Social Sciences (H&SS)
State Territory
- A State’s territory is the fixed portion of the surface of the
earth inhabited by the people of that state.
- The limits of the State’s territory generally define the
exclusive control (territorial sovereignty) and jurisdiction of
the state.
- The territory must be permanent and indicated with
precision.
- As it is one of the essential attributes of statehood, an entity
cannot be a State without a territory.
State Territory and Territorial Sovereignty

• The concept of “territorial sovereignty” is different from

the concept of “jurisdiction”.
• Territorial sovereignty signifies ownership and possession
of a territory, which entitles a State to exercise its
functions, authority and jurisdiction, over its territory.
• Jurisdiction simply means the official legal power to
make laws and legal judgements regarding peoples,
properties and events within the State’s territory.
State Territory and Territorial Sovereignty

• The concept of territorial sovereignty in International

Law implies that States are bound to protect the right
to territorial sovereignty of other States and in return be
protected.
• This has been enshrined in Article 2(4) of UN Charter
which uses the phrase “territorial integrity or political
independence“ and also recognized by customary
International Law.
Components of State Territory
• An international boundary is an imaginary line which
separates the territory of one State from that of another
or from an open sea.
• Boundaries can be formed by either 1) natural
topography (having physical distinguishable features
such as mountains, rivers, deserts, forests, a range of
rocks or lakes), or 2) man-made imaginary and artificial
lines (such as walls, pillars, trenches, or lines of altitude
and longitude).
Components of State Territory

• Both types have equal legal effects and usually based

upon treaties or historical title.
• International boundaries are also called ‘frontiers.’
Components of State Territory
• Within the boundary of a State, its components include the 1)
land territory, 2) the internal waters and the State’s territorial sea
(if it is coastal), and 3) the airspace and subsoil.
1. Land territory/Terrestrial domain: include the plains, mountains,
deserts etc.
2. Fluvial Domain (Internal waters) include:
- Rivers (national rivers, boundary rivers, Plurilateral rivers or
international rivers).
- Canals which are artificial waterways for navigation of ships or
irrigation. These can be within a territory or be an international
passageway connecting many states. (Usually there is freedom
of passage for foreign vessels under different bilateral or regional
treaties).
Components of State Territory
- Straits: Straits (naturally occurring water passageways)
having breadth more than 6 miles are termed as
international straits. Straits which are narrower than six miles
are regarded as part of the surrounding coastal States.
- Bays/Gulfs: A bay is a water body enclosed on (almost) 3
sides by land, with a wide mouth that opens into the ocean.
- Lakes/inland seas: If surrounded by one state, belong to
that state, if surrounded by more than one, law relating to
the lakes is governed by the special treaties signed by these
states.
Components of State territory
3. Maritime domain (Territorial sea):
• Territorial Sea is described as the belt of waters adjacent to
the coasts of a State up to a specified limit in the sea. This
excludes the internal waters in bays and gulfs, over which
the State claims its sovereignty and jurisdiction.
According to the Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982)
The territorial sea of a State extends uptil 12 nautical miles
from the low water mark or archipelagic baselines.
• The State exercises full jurisdiction in this area.
• Exception: Innocent Passage which should not be
prejudicial to the peace, good order, or security of the
coastal state and one that is continuous and expeditious
(Article 17 of UNCLOS).
• The sovereignty of a coastal State extends, beyond its
boundaries, over its contiguous zone, its continental
shelf and its exclusive economic zone.
Components of State territory
• Contiguous zone extends 24 nautical miles from the low
water mark or archipelagic baseline of the State.
- In this area, the State has limited jurisdiction (where it can
only enforce its customs, immigration, fiscal, and sanitation
laws).
• Exclusive Economic Zone extends 200 nautical miles from
low water mark or archipelagic baselines.
- Here the coastal State has even more limited jurisdiction
and can only use this area for exploitation of any natural
resources.
Components of State territory
4. The aerial domain – is the airspace above the terrestrial
domain and the maritime of the state, to an unlimited altitude
but not including outer space.
State Territory and Territorial Sovereignty
The right to territorial sovereignty enables a State to
exercise:
- the fullest measures of sovereign powers over its land
territory
- large measures over its territorial waters and air space,
and
- smaller measures over its continental shelf and
Exclusive Economic Zone.
State Territory and Territorial Sovereignty
• The sovereignty of States, whether coastal or land-
locked, also extends over their national vessels and
aircrafts (that fly the country’s flag) which are treated
as the State’s territory.
Acquisition of Territory
Acquisition of Territory
• Since the rights generated from the concept of territorial
sovereignty can only be exercised in relation to a territory, it
is necessary to know how a territory can be acquired.
• Based on Roman Law governing ownership and possession
of territory, there are two ways to acquire a territory:
1. Original title where title to territory is acquired through the
claim of land which was not previously owned.
e.g., occupation, prescription and accretion.
2. Derivative title: through the transfer of title from one State to
another
e.g., cession (voluntary or forcible), and conquest and
annexation.
Acquisition of Territory:
Original Title:
• Discovery is the oldest method of acquiring title to
territory.
• Up until the 18th century, discovery alone was enough
to establish a legal title where“physical” discovery or
simple “visual apprehension” was sufficient enough to
establish a right of sovereignty to a territory.
Acquisition of Territory:
Original Title:
1. Occupation is an original mode of acquisition by a
State of a title to a territory.
• This implies the establishment of sovereignty over a
territory not under the authority of any other State
whether it is newly discovered or (very unlikely to occur)
it was abandoned by the State which was formerly in
control.
• Such territory may be uninhabited such as an island, or
it may be inhabited by persons whose community is not
considered as a State.
Acquisition of Territory:
Original Title:
1. Occupation
• To make the title of acquisition through occupation
final and valid under International Law, the presence
and control of a State over the concerned territory
must be effective, peaceful, real, and continuous.
• The State can then formally demarcate boundaries,
issue official notifications to other States of its
sovereignty, or enter into treaties, to be recognized.
• For example: Greenland first became a possession of
Norway in 1261. Since 1953, it has been a territory of
Denmark.
Acquisition of Territory:
Original Title:
2. Prescription, in international law, is sovereignty transfer of a
territory by the open encroachment by the new sovereign
upon the territory for a prolonged period of time, acting as
the sovereign, without protest or other contest by the original
sovereign.
• For a title by prescription to be valid under International
Law, the exercise of this de facto sovereignty should hence
be public, peaceful and uninterrupted for a long period of
time.
• Validity of title grows with time.
• And the former sovereign must consent to the new
sovereign peacefully.
Acquisition of Territory:
Original Title:
2. Prescription
• Example: In the dispute over the Island of Palmas
between the US and Netherlands at PCIJ, the verdict
turned in favor of the Netherlands as Netherlands ruled
there for a longer time. Today the island is a territory of
Indonesia which was then part of the Kingdom of
Netherlands.
Acquisition of Territory:
Original Title:
3. Accretion is a geographical process by which new land is
formed mainly through natural causes and becomes
attached to existing land.
• Examples of such a process are the creation of islands in a
river mouth, the drying up or the change in the course of a
boundary river, or the emerging of island after the eruption
of an under-sea volcano.
• When the new land comes into being within the territory of
a State, it forms part of its territory, and this causes no
problem.
• In this case no need of formal act or assertion on part of the
acquiring State required.
Acquisition of Territory:
Derivative Title:
1. Cession of territory is a transfer of sovereignty from one
sovereign to another.
• It occurs by means of an agreement between the ceding and
the acquiring States.
• The cession may comprise 1) a portion of the territory of the
ceding State or 2) the totality of its territory. In the latter case,
the ceding State disappears and merges into the acquiring
State.
• Cession of territory may be voluntary as a result of a purchase,
an exchange, a gift, a voluntary merger, or any other
voluntary manner, or it may be made under compulsion as a
result of a war or any use of force against the ceding State.
Acquisition of Territory:
Derivative Title:
1. Cession
• Examples of voluntary cession include:
• The United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867
• France gifted Venice to Italy in 1866
• The Republic of Texas merged voluntarily into the United States
in 1795, etc.
• Examples of cession as a result of a war:
• France ceded the region of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in
1871 (though until WWI)
• Korea was merged into Japan in 1910 (until WWII)
• Spain ceded Philippines to the US as a result of the US victory in
the Spanish-American War in 1989. In compensation the US
paid Spain $20 million.
Acquisition of Territory:
Derivative Title:
2. Conquest and Annexation
• Conquest is an act of defeating an opponent State and
occupying all or part of its territory.
• Annexation is the second step following conquest which
includes extension of sovereignty over the territory by
merging it into the State.
• Unlike cession, conquest followed by annexation involves
no agreement between the concerned parties.
• While the acquisition of territory through conquest
followed by annexation was an accepted mode of
acquiring title to territory under traditional International
Law, it is no longer legal in modern times.
Acquisition of Territory:
Derivative Title:
2. Conquest and Annexation
• As of modern times, UN Charter’s Article 2 refrains
member states from the use of force against the territorial
integrity or political independence of any State, hence,
outlawing the acquisition of territory through the use of
force.
• This same principle is reaffirmed in the 1970 General
Assembly “Declaration on Principles of International Law
Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among
States in Accordance with the Charter of the United
Nations”.
Acquisition of Territory:
Derivative Title:
2. Conquest and Annexation
• Modern examples of annexation following conquest are
Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights and the East
Jerusalem, and Iraq’s annexation of Kuwait in 1990.
• In case of the Iraqi annexation, the Security Council
adopted the resolution 662 of 1990 declaring that this
annexation “has no legal validity and is considered null
and void.”
Loss of territory

• There are also modes of losing territory by a state.

• Territory may be lost by express declaration or conduct
such as a treaty of cession or acceptance of cession, by
conquest, by erosion or natural geographic activities, by
prescription or by abandonment.
 State Territory and Territorial Sovereignty
Treaties and conventions concluded to regulate State
sovereignty over land, sea, airspace and outer space:
For Airspace:
- The 1919 Paris Convention (State’s sovereignty over its airspace)
- 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation (the Chicago
Convention) (regarding rules of air travel)
- 1963 Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere,
in Outer Space and under Water (The Partial Test Ban Treaty 1963 (PTBT)).
(excluding underground testing)
For Outer Space:
- 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities in the
Exploration and Use of Outer Space including the Moon and
Other Celestial Bodies (the Outer Space Treaty)
 State Territory and Territorial Sovereignty
For Sea:
- 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea (this replaced the
1956 Conventions related to the Territorial Sea and the
Contiguous Zone, the High Seas, the Continental Shelf, and
Fishing and Conservation of living Resources of the High
Seas).
For Antarctica
- The1959 Antarctica Treaty