How to Obtain Territorial Sovereignty

There are many ways for a country to acquire its sovereign territory. Quoting Huala Adolf's opinion in the book Aspects of the State in International Law (2015), he at least outlines 7 ways to achieve sovereignty over a country's territory, namely:

  1. Occupation or Occupation (Occupation), is the occupation of a territory that is not and has never been owned by a country when the occupation process occurs. Occupation contains two main elements, namely the discovery of new territory and effective control over that territory.
  2. Conquest (Annexation), is a way to acquire territory based on violence such as war or invasion. This method is no longer legally recognized after the signing of the Brian-Kellog Pact in 1928 which prohibited the acquisition of territory by violence.
  3. Accretion or Natural Phenomena (Accretion/Avulsion), is a way to acquire new territory through natural processes. An example is the eruption of a volcanic mountain on the seabed which creates a new island and becomes part of a certain country's territorial territory.
  4. Prescription (Prescription), is the ownership of a territory by a country that has occupied it for a long period of time with the knowledge and without objection from the owner.
  5. Cessi (Cession), Is the peaceful transfer of territory from one country to another. An example is the case of the sale of the Alaska territory, which belonged to Russia, sold to the US in 1867 for 7.2 million US dollars. This sale and purchase resulted in a cessi process, namely the peaceful transfer of the Alaska territory from Russia to the United States.
  6. Plebiscite or General Election (Plebicites), is a form of territorial transfer through the choice of its population after elections, referendums, or other means involving the participation and approval of its population.
  7. Court / Arbitration Decision (Adjudication), the territorial territory of a particular country can change or transfer ownership because it is decided by a court. This concept was introduced by S.T. Bernandez who stated that the acquisition of territory is not constitutive, but declarative, namely through court decisions or arbitration.

Reference

  • Montevideo Convention of 1993 (Montevideo Convention on The Rights and Duties of States).
  • Adolf, Huala. 2015. Aspects of the State in International Law (5th Printing). CV Keni Media Publisher, Bandung.