Territorial sovereignty refers to a state's independence and exclusive authority over its territory. A state exercises sovereignty through territorial control of its boundaries. There are several modes of acquiring territory, including occupation of terra nullius lands, prescription over time, and cession from another state. International law principles like uti possidetis maintain existing colonial boundaries when new states gain independence.

1. Public International Law
Territorial Sovereignty
Ayush Jha
Assistant Professor

2. Territorial Sovereignty
Meaning of Territory
• “A State without territory is not possible”- Oppenhiem.
• State Territory is a space within which the State
exercises its supreme and normally exclusive authority.
• The legal concepts of sovereignty and jurisdiction can
be comprehended only in relation to territory.
• The centrality of territory in IL can be understood by
looking at the rules of its inviolability.
• The change in ownership of territory has legal effects
on the issues of sovereignty and jurisdiction upon the
inhabitants.

3. Territorial sovereignty
• Max Huber in Island of Palmas Case- “Sovereignty
in relation between States signifies independence.
Independence in regard to a portion of globe is the
right to exercise therein, to the exclusion of any
other state, the functions of State”.
• It has a positive and a negative aspect.
• A State exercises its territorial sovereignty within its
boundary.
• The right to territorial sovereignty enables a State to
exercise the fullest measures of sovereignty powers
over its land territory.

4. Acquisition of Territory
• Original and Derivative modes.
Occupation
• Establishment of sovereignty over a territory not under
the authority of any other State (terra nullius).
• The occupation must be by state, must be effective, with
intention to claim sovereignty.
• Eastern Greenland Case- Effective occupation requires
1. Intention or will to act as sovereign.
2. Adequate exercise or display of sovereignty.
• Mere discovery doesn’t create territorial sovereignty
unless significant activity is shown.
• Second requirement can be fulfilled by administering
the affairs of the territory via authorities.

5. Examples:
• State A claims a fishing island in Indian Ocean as
part of its territory because it is close to their shore.
But the island is in occupation of state B for over a
century even though there is no permanent
population.
• State A discovers a new island and displays its flag
there. Subsequently, State B occupies the island.
After some years, State A wants to recover island
from State B.

6. Prescription
• Prescription is a mode of acquisition of a territory
which is subject to the sovereignty of another State,
(not being terra nullius) through peaceful exercise
of de facto sovereignty over a long period of time.
• Requirements:
– The acquiring state must not have acquiesced to title of
another state.
– length of time must be adequate.
– the exercise of de facto sovereignty must be continuous,
peaceful and uninterrupted.
– Possession must be in public.
• Frontiers Lands Case (Belgium v. Nehterlands),
1959.

7. Accretion
• Accretion is a geographical process by which new land
is formed mainly through natural causes and becomes
attached to existing land.
• No formal act or assertion on part of the acquiring State
is required.
• Eg: Creation of islands in a rive 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.
• In case of a drying or shifting of a boundary river-
– if the change is gradual and slight, the boundary may be
shifted,
– if the change is violent and excessive, the boundary stays
at the same point along the original riverbed.

8. Annexation
• Annexation is the extension of sovereignty over a
territory by its inclusion into the State.
• It is resorted to in two circumstances:
1. Conquest or subjugation by annexing State.
2. ‘virtual’ subordination to annexing state at the
time of declaration of intent to annex.
• Conquest, by itself doesn’t grant title to the
victorious State.
• It is no longer a legal mode. However, it does give
the victor certain rights under IL relating to the
occupied territory.

9. Cession
• It is a transfer of sovereignty from one sovereign to
another.
• It rests on the principle that the right of transferring its
territory is a fundamental attribute of the sovereignty of
a State.
• It occurs by means of an agreement between the ceding
and the acquiring States.
• Cession of territory may be:
1. Voluntary as a result of a purchase, an exchange, a gift, a
voluntary merger,
2. Made under compulsion as a result of a war or any use of
force against the ceding State.
• Re Berubari Union Case (1960)- cession amounts to
transfer of sovereignty over a territory to by one State to
another sovereign State, and this can be done in exercise of
treaty making power.

10. Leases and Servitudes
• Sovereignty is passed to the lessee state by the lessor
state under a treaty for a certain duration.
• Ex- Panama Canal (US and Panama), Guantanamo Bay
(US and Cuba).
• Servitudes are exceptional restrictions on the territorial
sovereignty of one state to serve interests of another
state.
• Ex- right to use ports or rivers in, or a right of way
across, the concerned territory;
• Constantinople Convention 1888.
• Wimbledon Case (1923).
• UOI v. Sukumar Sen Gupta (1990)
• Right to Passage over Indian Territory Case

11. Modes of loss of territory
• Dereliction- abandonment or relinquishment of
sovereignty. Corresponds with occupation.
• Operations of nature- corresponds with accretion.
• Prescription
• Cession
• Subjugation
• Secession- a state may lose a part of territory either
by revolt or peaceful means. Seceding parts become
independent states.
• Grant of independence by imperial states.

12. Uti possidetis
“As you possess”
• It is a Roman Law doctrine which was used to maintain
status quo during the pendency of a property dispute.
• In international law this doctrine has been used to
ascertain the boundaries of the newly decolonised
states.
• According to the doctrine, the boundaries of the states
must be ascertained on the basis of the demarcation of
the administrative unit by the antecedent colonial
power.
• In re Frontier Dispute (Burk. Faso/Mali), 1986- the
doctrine would take precedence in establishing borders
given the paramount importance of ‘stable borders in
maintaining the peace’, notwithstanding the importance
of the principle of self-determination.