Statehood, territory and international spaces are at the heart of a specific branch of international law: the international law of territory. International territorial disputes and their settlement are investigated from the standpoint of legal titles: acquisition and loss of territorial sovereignty, use of force (annexation, conquest), the right of peoples to self-determination (and secession), ius cogens norms etc. The existence, among others, of de facto states, puppet states, drowning and failed States shows the Protean character of statehood. Peculiar territorial regimes are likewise examined: international administration, leases, servitudes, protectorates, international cities and territories, as well as the League of Nations Mandates and the United Nations Trusteeship system.
Abbreviations
Introduction
Introductory Note to this Edition
Prolegomena: State, Sovereignty and Space
AState: The Monad of Contemporary Public International Law
BTerritory
iThe Different Components and the Characteristics of State Territory
iiThe Legal Relationship between State and Territory: a Sampling of Theories
on Territorial Sovereignty
iiiState Succession and Territorial Changes
Part 1
The Technique Creation, Extinction and Modification of Title of Territorial
Sovereignty
1The Concept of Legal Title
AThe So-Called Modes of Acquisition of Title to Territory
BTowards a New Articulation of the Concept of Title to Territorial
Sovereignty
CStrength or Relative Weight of Territorial Title: the Gradations of Legal
Title
2Acquisition and Loss of Title of Territorial Sovereignty by Conventional
Juridical Act: The Territorial Treaty and Its Specificities
AThe Principle of Stability and Permanence of Borders
BNemo plus iuris ad alium transferre quam ipse haberet
CThe Principle of the Relative Effect of Treaties
DAgreements with Native Rulers
EThe Plebiscite as a Condition for the Validity of Territorial Change
3Acquisition and Loss of of the Title of Territorial Sovereignty by
Juridical Fact
AAcquiescence
BEstoppel
CTacit Agreement
iTacit Agreement Modifying or Terminating Territorial Treaties
iiTacit Agreement as an Autonomous Source of Territorial Titles
DHistorical Consolidation of Territorial Titles or the Complex Juridical
Fact
iThe Concept and Its Genesis
iiIts Tormented Jurisprudential Life
4The (Presumptive) Dilemma between Formal Legal Title and Effectiveness
AThe Effective Occupation of terra nullius
BThe Paradigms of the Antinomy Legal Title (titulus) / Effectiveness
(modus)
iImmemorial Possession
iiDisputed Possession
iiiUsucapion in International Law: a Highly Controversial Concept
Part 2
Territorial Polemology Territorial Titles in Light of Anomalous, Deviant and
Borderline Situations
5Title of Territorial Sovereignty and the Threat or Use of Force
AConquest, Forcible Annexation, debellatio
BIllegal Territorial Situations
iRecognition and Adjudication of Territories before 1945
iiThe Invalidation of Illegal Territorial Situations and the Adjudication
of Territories under the UN Charter (After 1945)
iiiThe Principle of the Inadmissibility of the Acquisition of Territory by
Force and the Obligation of Non-recognition
6The Title of Territorial Sovereignty and the Principle of the Right of
Peoples to Self-determination
AAs a Basis for the Title of Territorial Sovereignty
iThe Genesis of the Principle
iiStrengthening of the Principle and Extension of Its Scope of
Application
iiiThe Institutional Dimension: Who Makes the Determination?
ivThe Presumptive Contradiction with the Principle of uti Possidetis
BDistinguished from Secession
iSuccessful Violent Secessions and the Birth of New Independent States: The
Exception
iiUnsuccessful Violent Secessions: the Rule
iiiTwo (Currently) Controversial Cases: Kosovo and Crimea
CA (Truly) Sui-generis Case: Palestine (19982012Present Day)
7The State in All Its States
APuppet States
BDe facto States
CFailed or Failing States
DDrowning States: Looming Deterritorialisation of Sovereignty?
Part 3
Territorial Irenicism Specific Territorial Situations and Regimes
8The Pertinacious Sovereignty: Traditional Territorial Regimes
ADivorce between ius nudum and exercitium iuris, as well as between
Sovereignty and Ownership
iDivorce between Sovereignty and Its Exercise
iiSovereignty and Ownership Rights
BServitudes in International Law (Article 12 (1) vcss 1978)
CObjective Territorial Régimes (Article 12 (2) vcss 1978)
DCondominium and Coimperium
ESpheres of Influence
FPeaceful Occupation
GInternational Protectorates
iNotion
iiForms
iiiSome Specific Features
HNeutralised or Demilitarised Territories
iDemilitarisation of Territories
iiNeutralisation of States or Parts of their Territories
9The Deterritorialisation of Space: Indirect and Direct International
Administrations
AThe League of Nations Mandate System
iOrigins, Concepts and Purposes
iiTypology of Mandates and Supervisory System
iiiTravaux Préparatoires
ivThe Juridical Context
vInternational and Municipal Case Law
BTrusteeship System of the United Nations
iThe Succession of Mandates within the United Nations International
Trusteeship Administration
iiAffinities and Differences with the International Trusteeship
Administration Established by the UN Charter
iiiThe Legacy of the Mandate System in the UN Trusteeship Administration
CInternational Cities and Territories
iThe Free City of Danzig
iiThe Tangier International Zone
iiiThe Memel Territory
10The Direct International Administration of Territories
AWithin the League of Nations
iThe Saar Territory Governing Commission and Its Sequel after wwii
iiThe Leticia Administration Commission (19331934)
BDirect International Administration by the UN: a Very Brief Sampling
Index
Giovanni Distefano, Ph.D. (2000, Geneva), is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Neuchâtel and at the Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights (Geneva). He has published and edited books, including Fundamentals of Public International Law (Brill, 2019) and International Law and the Use of Force: Enchaining Ares (Brill, 2024).
