The Clipperton Island Case was an arbitration case over the sovereignty of Clipperton Island between France and Mexico. The case was adjudicated by the King of Italy in 1931, and forms an important precedent in international law, particularly in matters of territorial sovereignty and the role of arbitration in resolving disputes between nations.

Background

Location of Clipperton Island

Clipperton Island, an uninhabited atoll in the Pacific Ocean, became the subject of a territorial dispute between France and Mexico in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[1][2] The island gained significant attention due to its strategic location in the Pacific Ocean and the potential for guano deposits, which were used to enhance fertilizer.[3][4] Initially France, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States all laid claims to Clipperton.[5] Both the United Kingdom and United States dropped their claims to the island, leaving only France and Mexico.[6]

On November 17, 1858, Lieutenant Victor Le Coat de Kervéguen on the French merchant ship L'Amiral took possession of Clipperton for France.[6] Upon arriving in the Kingdom of Hawaii, a notice of France's annexation of Clipperton was published on November 17, 1858, in a local newspaper on the island.[7][8]

In 1897, a Mexican expedition raised the Mexican flag on Clipperton as a way to strengthen their claim to Clipperton.[9] In 1905, the Mexican government established a military garrison on the island, and later erected a lighthouse under the orders of President Porfirio Díaz.[10][11] By 1914, around 100 Mexican settlers had landed on the island to further establish Mexico's claim.[12][13] Due to the start of the Mexican Revolution, supply ships ceased visiting the island and by 1917 many settlers had perished from scurvy.[14] The survivors were rescued, and returned to Mexico.[15][16]

Arbitration

There is no reason to suppose that France has subsequently lost her right by derelictio, since she never had the animus of abandoning the island, and the fact that she has not exercised her authority there in a positive manner does not imply the forfeiture of an acquisition already definitively perfected."

Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, Arbitral Award on the Subject of the Difference Relative to the Sovereignty over Clipperton Island[17]

On March 2, 1909, the two countries signed an agreement in Mexico to submit the dispute to arbitration, and selected King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy as arbiter.[17][18] Nearly 22 years later, on January 28, 1931, Victor Emmanuel rendered his decision, awarding the island to France.[1][17][19]

France's argument for its ownership of Clipperton was based on its 1858 claim and the formal annexation of the island and that the land was terra nullius.[18][20] Additionally, France had maintained its ownership of Clipperton when other nations had claimed or landed on Clipperton.[21] Mexico made the claim that Clipperton had been discovered by the Spanish Navy and that the papal bull of Alexander VII in 1492 had given sovereignty of the island to Spain.[22][23] Following Spain's recognition of Mexico in 1836 following the Mexican War of Independence, Mexico retained all of the Spanish territory including the adjacent islands and annexed lands.[24][25] Additionally, Mexico had both geographic proximity and effectively occupation of the island in the early 20th century.[2][26] The core legal question was which principle was more important in international law: historical claim or effective occupation.[27]

Impact on International Law

An important result of the Clipperton Island case was that the first nation to discover and prove unclaimed land exists has claim to said territory.[28][29] This means that the occupation of a territory is not always a requirement for making a claim on it.[30][31] Nations wishing to make a claim on territory are required to exercise exclusive authority on the territory.[17][32] Although the levels of exclusive authority are interrupted on a case-by-case basis, with uninhabitable areas such as Clipperton having a much lower bar than territory with a native population.[21][33][34] France's continued claims of sovereignty over the island, even when Mexico made claims, was an important part of the arbitration going in their favor.[31] As a further result of this ruling, nations which make claims on territory do not forfeit said territory when it is unoccupied or not actively developed.[35]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Dickinson, Edwin D. (1933). "The Clipperton Island Case". American Journal of International Law. 27 (1): 130–133. doi:10.2307/2189797. ISSN 0002-9300. JSTOR 2189797. S2CID 147177707. Archived from the original on 10 April 2023. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  2. 1 2 Smith, Mark A. (1977). "Sovereignty Over Unoccupied Territories—The Western Sahara Decision". Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law. 9 (1): 135–159. Archived from the original on 16 July 2022. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  3. ↑ Teall, J. J. H. (1898). "A Phosphatized Trachyte from Clipperton Atoll (Northern Pacific)". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 54 (1–4): 230–233. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1898.054.01-04.20. ISSN 0370-291X. S2CID 129862014.
  4. ↑ Goldberg, Walter M. (2018), "Pacific Islands and the Politics of Fertilizer", The Geography, Nature and History of the Tropical Pacific and its Islands, World Regional Geography Book Series, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 133–155, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-69532-7_6, ISBN 978-3-319-69531-0, retrieved 2023-12-31
  5. ↑ "Mysterious Island in the Pacific". Otago Daily Times. Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. October 15, 1898. p. 3.
  6. 1 2 Myhre, Jeffrey D. (1986). The Antarctic Treaty system : politics, law, and diplomacy (1st ed.). Boulder, Colorado, United States of America: Westview Press. pp. 8–9.
  7. ↑ "Empire of France!". The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Honolulu, Hawaii. 15 Jan 1859. Archived from the original on 27 June 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  8. ↑ Pardon, Daniel (2020-05-15). "1858 : Napoléon III déclenche la guerre des drapeaux à Clipperton" [1858: Napoleon III launches the War of the Flags at Clipperton]. Tahiti Infos (in French). Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  9. ↑ Derrig, Ríán (2021), "Was Rockall Conquered? An Application of the Law of Territory to a Rock in the North Atlantic Ocean", Bliainiris Éireannach an Dlí IdirnáisiúntaThe Irish Yearbook of International Law, Hart Publishing, p. 65, doi:10.5040/9781509950904.0007, ISBN 978-1-5099-5087-4, S2CID 237982783, retrieved 2023-12-31
  10. ↑ Remiro Brótons, Antonio (2015-01-01), del Castillo, Lilian (ed.), "19 About the Islands", Law of the Sea, From Grotius to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Brill | Nijhoff, pp. 318–336, doi:10.1163/9789004283787_020, ISBN 978-90-04-28378-7, retrieved 2024-01-06
  11. ↑ Arnaud, Gabriela (2015). Clipperton, Una Historia de Honor y Gloria [Clipperton, A History of Honour and Glory] (in Spanish). Mexico: Bubok Editorial. ISBN 978-84-686-8274-7.
  12. ↑ "About Clipperton Island". ClippertonProject.com. The Clipperton Project. 2014. Archived from the original on 17 January 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  13. ↑ Aldrich, Robert; Connell, John (1992). France's overseas frontier: départements et territoires d'outre-mer (1st ed.). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-521-39061-3.
  14. ↑ Jean-Baptiste, Philippe; Fourré, Elise; Charlou, Jean-Luc; Donval, Jean-Pierre; Corrège, Thierry (2009). "Gaining insight into Clipperton's lagoon hydrology using tritium". Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. 83 (1): 39–46. Bibcode:2009ECSS...83...39J. doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2009.03.017. S2CID 42281088. Archived from the original on 13 February 2020. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  15. ↑ Crothers, R.A., ed. (1917-08-09). "Ten More Saved From Island Plague". San Francisco Bulletin. Vol. 124, no. 106. San Francisco, California, United States of America. Associated Press. p. 10.
  16. ↑ Hight, G.T., ed. (1918-02-14). "Tales of Horror Rivals Fiction". The Bristow Enterprise. Vol. 17, no. 39. Bristow, Nebraska, United States of America. p. 8.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Emmanuel, Victor (1932). "Arbitral Award on the Subject of the Difference Relative to the Sovereignty Over Clipperton Island". American Journal of International Law. 26 (2): 390–394. doi:10.2307/2189369. ISSN 0002-9300. JSTOR 2189369. S2CID 246005364.
  18. 1 2 McConnell, WH (1970). "The Legal Regime of Archipelagoes". Saskatchewan Law Review. 35 (2). Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  19. ↑ "ITALY: Clipperton Island". Time. 1931-02-16. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  20. ↑ Evans, Malcolm D.; Lewis, Reece (2023). Islands, law and context: the treatment of islands in international law. Elgar international law. Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 978-1-80220-763-7.
  21. 1 2 Schwarzenberger, Georg (1957). "Title to Territory: Response to a Challenge". American Journal of International Law. 51 (2): 308–324. doi:10.2307/2195709. ISSN 0002-9300. JSTOR 2195709. S2CID 147070225.
  22. ↑ Pope Alexander VI (25 September 1493). Dudum siquidem  (in Latin) – via Wikisource.
  23. ↑ Usuki, Eiichi (2021). "Japan's Claim to Takeshima". In Huth, Paul K.; Kim, Sunwoong; Roehrig, Terence (eds.). The Dokdo/Takeshima dispute: South Korea, Japan and the search for a peaceful solution. Maritime Cooperation in East Asia (1st ed.). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Nijhoff. p. 94. ISBN 978-90-04-44789-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  24. ↑ Arias, Juan de Dios; Olavarría y Ferrari, Enrique de (1880) tomo IV page 392 (in Spanish)
  25. ↑ Robertson, William Spence (1918). "The Recognition of the Spanish Colonies by the Motherland". The Hispanic American Historical Review. 1 (1): 70–91. doi:10.2307/2506014. JSTOR 2506014.
  26. ↑ Van Dyke, Jon M. (1982). "Uninhabited Islands: Their Impact on the Ownership of the Oceans' Resources". Ocean Development and International Law. 12: 265.
  27. ↑ Buderi, Charles L.O.; Ricart, Luciana T. (2018-05-15). "The Early Seventeenth Century to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Were the Islands Still Terra Nullius?". The Iran-UAE Gulf Islands Dispute: A Journey Through International Law, History and Politics. Queen Mary Studies in International Law. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill | Nijhoff (published 2018). doi:10.1163/9789004236196_006. ISBN 978-90-04-23618-9.
  28. ↑ Tray, Kevin (2008). "Fear and Loathing in the South Pole: The Need to Resolve the Antarctic Sovereignty Issue and a Framework for Doing It". Temple International & Comparative Law Journal. 22: 213.
  29. ↑ Heydte, Friedrich August Freiherr Von Der (1935). "Discovery, Symbolic Annexation and Virtual Effectiveness in International Law". American Journal of International Law. 29 (3): 448–471. doi:10.2307/2190420. ISSN 0002-9300. JSTOR 2190420. S2CID 147097044.
  30. ↑ Dugard, John (1999). International law : a South African perspective (2nd ed.). Cape Town, Republic of South Africa: JUTA Law. p. 118.
  31. 1 2 Dixon, Martin (2013). Textbook on International Law (7th ed.). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-19-957445-2.
  32. ↑ Head, Ivan (1963). "Canadian Claims to Territorial Sovereignty in the Arctic Regions". McGill Law Journal. 9 (3).
  33. ↑ Ma, Xuechan (2017). "Historic Title Over Land and Maritime Territory". The Journal of Territorial and Maritime Studies. 4 (1): 31–46. ISSN 2288-6834. JSTOR 26664141.
  34. ↑ Johnson, Eric (1976). "Quick, before it Melts: Toward a Resolution of the Jurisdictional Morass in Antarctica". Cornell International Law Journal. 10 (1).
  35. ↑ Scott, Shirley V. (2021). "The Irrelevance of Non-recognition to Australia's Antarctic Territory Title". International and Comparative Law Quarterly. 70 (2): 491–503. doi:10.1017/S0020589321000051. ISSN 0020-5893.
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