Territory is defined as any area subject to a state's sovereignty. The traditional ways states acquire territory are discovery, occupation, prescription, cession, annexation, assimilation, and conquest. Key international agreements like the Outer Space Treaty and Moon Treaty establish principles for sovereign claims over space and other celestial bodies. The treaty prohibits nuclear weapons in space and mandates peaceful use of the moon and other bodies. Pirate radio refers to illegal or unregulated broadcasts, especially those transmitted across national borders without a license.

1. TERRITORY OF STATES
CHAPTER IX – MITRA, Karyll Ann G

2. TERRITORY DEFINED:
 Territory in international law means any
area of the earth’s surface which is the
subject of sovereign rights and interests.
 It is a definite part of the surface of the
earth where the state normally exercises
jurisdiction over persons or things to the
exclusion of another state.

3. TERRITORY DEFINED:
 The domain of a state therefore may be
described as:
 Terrestrial
 Fluvial or maritime
 Aerial

4. PHILIPPINE TERRITORY

5. WHY DETERMINE TERRITORY?
 Territory is one of the fundamental attributes of
a State. The exercise of sovereignty is
predicated upon territory. With territory, the
State could perform acts and be subject to
duties which it could not perform and to which
it would not be subject if it lacked territory.

6. ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY
The traditional modes of acquiring a territory of a State are:
 Discovery
 Occupation
 Prescription
 Cession
 Annexation
 Assimilation
 Conquest

7. DISCOVERY
 DISCOVERY is the oldest method of acquiring title to
territory
 Up to the 18th century, discovery alone was enough
to establish a legal title
 “Physical” discovery or simple “visual apprehension,”
is sufficient enough to establish a right of sovereignty
over, or a valid title to terra nullius

8. DISCOVERY
Related to the title by discovery is the
hinterland doctrine or the principle of
continuity:
“If a state has made a settlement, it has a right to
assume sovereignty over all adjacent vacant
territory, which is necessary to the integrity and
security of the settlement.”

9. TITLE BY OCCUPATION AND PRESCRIPTION
Acquisition of territory by prescription means
continued occupation over a long period of
time by one State of territory actually and
originally belonging to another State.

10. TITLE BY OCCUPATION AND PRESCRIPTION
THE CASE OF ISLAND OF PALMAS ARBITRATION
The Netherlands v. The United States (1928)

11. TITLE BY OCCUPATION AND PRESCRIPTION
THE CASE OF ISLAND OF PALMAS ARBITRATION
The Netherlands v. The United States (1928)
Both the United States laid claim to the ownership of the
Island of Palmas. While the U.S. maintained that it was part of
the Philippines, the Netherlands claimed it as their own. The
claim of the U.S. was back up with the fact that the islands
had been ceded by Spain by the Treaty of Paris in 1898, and
as successor to the rights of Spain over the Philippines, it
based its claim of title in the first place on discovery. On the
part of the Netherlands, they claimed to have possessed
and exercised rights of sovereignty over the island from 1677
or earlier to the present.

12. TITLE BY OCCUPATION AND PRESCRIPTION
THE KALAYAAN ISLAND GROUP

13. TITLE BY OCCUPATION AND PRESCRIPTION
THE KALAYAAN ISLAND GROUP
 By virtue of occupation as res mullus and exercise of
jurisdiction, the Philippines formally claimed under
Presidential Decree No. 1596 on 11 June 1978 title to the
Kalayaan Island Group.
 The Philippine claim was duly registered in the UN
Secretariat on 20 May 1980 including the technical
description of the boundaries.

14. TITLE BY OCCUPATION AND PRESCRIPTION
THE CLAIM OF CHINA
 As early as the 2nd century B.C. Chinese discoveries were
claimed of the Xisha (Paracels) and Nansha (Spratlys)
islands.
 After WWI, China was the only claimant of the Spratlys.
The Chinese claimed sovereignty over the Spratlys since
the 13th century through expeditions.
 The Chinese admit that there is no actual occupation and
control of the totally uninhabited islands.

15. TITLE BY OCCUPATION AND PRESCRIPTION
THE CLAIM OF TAIWAN
o Since Taiwan claims to represent the sovereignty of the
whole China, the basis of its claim is more or less the same
as that of China.
o Taiwan asserts that Nansha, Xisha, Chungsha and Tungshu
Islands are integrated parts of the Republic of China by
history and tradition.

16. TITLE BY OCCUPATION AND PRESCRIPTION
THE CLAIM OF VIETNAM
→ The claim of Vietnam to Xisha (Paracels) is primarily based
on state succession and historical grounds.
→ Upon the dissolution of its Indochina empire in 1954,
France allegedly ceded its control over the Paracels to
Vietname but retained its claim to the Spratlys.
→ In later years, Vietnam continued to assert sovereignty
over the Paracels, seizing fishing vessels of China in the
area.

17. TITLE BY OCCUPATION AND PRESCRIPTION
THE PHILIPPINE CLAIM

18. TITLE BY ACCRETION
Accretion is the process by which new land formations are
legally accumulated to old ones. It includes several
geographic phenomena such as diversion of the river from
where it previously flowed, the gradual deposit of soil by a
river flowing past a shore or by an ocean along its coasts.
Accretion was derived from the Roman Law principle that
anything added follows the status of the principal thing.
An addition to the river bank represents not only an addition
to the territory of the State, but also causes an outward
extension of the marine frontier.

19. TITLE BY ACCRETION
Slow and gradual deposit of
slow by alluvium so as to
modify river channel
imperceptively.
Sudden and violent shift in the
channel so as to leave the old
river bed dry.
ACCRETION AVULSION

20. CONQUEST AND ANNEXATION
With the coming into force of the United Nations Charter, the
acquisition of territory by conquest may NO LONGER BE
LEGAL under international law. To this day, however, some
States still persist in acquiring territory by the use of force such
as the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.

21. CESSION
Cession may be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary cession
of a territory is the transfer of sovereignty over a territory by
the owner State to another State. Since cession is a bilateral
transaction, the ceding and the acquiring parties must be
States.
Voluntary cession is made through a treaty which specifies
the definite territory ceded. Cession may also be in the form
of exchange of territory for another, or in the form of gift or
donation, or devise.

22. TERRITORIAL TITLE OVER THE
POLAR REGIONS
 In 1924, a policy enunciated by Secretary of
State Hughes stated that no claims in Antartica
could be recognized unless it is followed by
effective occupation or control, including
settlement and development.
 Other countries, however, asserted exclusive
claims and at times recognized each other’s
claim as valid.

23. TERRITORIAL TITLE OVER THE
POLAR REGIONS
 The US once suggested the internalization of the
entire region to avoid conflict, but it did not
receive any favorable response from other
claimants.
 In 1959, *seventeen states concluded the
Antartic Treaty at Washington for peaceful
cooperation, exploration, and scientific
investigation of Antartica.
*Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Japan,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Union of South Africa, UK, US
and U.S.S.R.

24. NATIONAL AIRSPACE
 The law on airspace today has its roots from the
Roman law principle of:
“qui dominus est soli est coeli et infernonum”, latin for
whoever owns the soil, it is theirs all the way up to
Heaven and down to Hell
and the common law maximum“cujus est solum, ejus est usque
and coelum” which is latin for
the State has sovereignty over all airspace above its
territory

25. OUTER SPACE TREATY
The Outer Space Treaty was considered by the
Legal Subcommittee in 1966 and agreement was reached
in the General Assembly in the same year. The Treaty was
largely based on the Declaration of Legal Principles
Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use
of Outer Space, which had been adopted by the General
Assembly in its resolution 1962 (XVIII) in 1963, but added a
few new provisions. The Treaty was opened for signature by
the three depository Governments (the Russian Federation,
the United Kingdom and the United States of America) in
January 1967, and it entered into force in October 1967.

26. OUTER SPACE TREATY
The Outer Space Treaty provides the basic framework on
international space law, including the following principles:
 the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried
out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and
shall be the province of all mankind;
 outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all
States;
 outer space is not subject to national appropriation by
claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or
by any other means;
 States shall not place nuclear weapons or other
weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial
bodies or station them in outer space in any other
manner;

27. OUTER SPACE TREATY
The Outer Space Treaty provides the basic framework
on international space law, including the following
principles:
 the Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively
for peaceful purposes;
 astronauts shall be regarded as the envoys of mankind;
 States shall be responsible for national space activities
whether carried out by governmental or non-governmental
entities;
 States shall be liable for damage caused by their space
objects; and
 States shall avoid harmful contamination of space and
celestial bodies.

28. MOON TREATY
The agreement governing the activities of states
on the moon and other celestial bodies approved
in 1979, provides that all activities on the moon are
to be carried out in the interest of peace with due
regard to the interest of all parties and other states.
The moon is demilitarized and nuclear weapons or
other weapons of mass destruction should not be
deposited in it.

29. PIRATE BROADCASTING
 Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission for
entertainment or political purposes. While pirate just
refers to the illegal nature of the broadcasts, there have
also been notable pirate offshore radio transmissions.
 Pirate radio generally describes the unlicensed
broadcast of FM radio, AM radio, or short wave signals
over a wide range. In some cases radio stations are
deemed legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal
where the signals are received—especially when the
signals cross a national boundary.
 Pirate radio stations are sometimes
called bootleg, clandestine stations (associated with
heavily politically motivated operations) or free
radio stations.