The compilation of key articles and excerpts in this timely volume deals with the importance of territory for international law with regards to its relationship with power, state building and globalisation. The collection also analyses the evolution and scope of the law of acquisition of territory from colonial times to today, the emergence of new areas for the territorial expansion of states and the border delimitation rules. In addition, the selected papers investigate the impact of the human dimension, particularly the individual and collective human rights, on the way international law addresses territorial issues, including indigenous peoples and the right to self-determination.

International law holds a paradoxical position with territory. Most rules of international law are traditionally based on the notion of State territory, and territoriality still significantly shapes our contemporary legal system. At the same time, new developments have challenged territory as the main organising principle in international relations. Three trends in particular have affected the role of territoriality in international law: the move towards functional regimes, the rise of cosmopolitan projects claiming to transgress state boundaries, and the development of technologies resulting in the need to address intangible, non-territorial, phenomena. Yet, notwithstanding some profound changes, it remains impossible to think of international law without a territorial locus. If international law is undergoing changes, this implies a reconfiguration of territory, but not a move beyond it. The Netherlands Yearbook of International Law was first published in 1970. It offers a forum for the publication of scholarly articles of a conceptual nature in a varying thematic area of public international law.

Territorial disputes remain a significant source of tension in international relations, representing an important share of interstate cases brought before international tribunals and courts. Analysing the international law applicable to the assessment of territorial claims and the settlement of related disputes, this Research Handbook provides a systematic exposition and in-depth discussions of the relevant key concepts, principles, rules, and techniques. Combining extensive knowledge from across international law, Marcelo Kohen and Mamadou Hébié expertly unite a multinational group of contributors to provide a go-to resource for the settlement of territorial disputes. The different chapters discuss the process through which states establish sovereignty over a territory, and review the different titles of territorial sovereignty, the relation between titles and effectivités, as well as the relevance of state conduct. Select chapters focus on the impact of foundational principles of international law such as the principle of territorial integrity, the right of self-determination and the prohibition of the threat or use of force, on territorial disputes. Finally, technical rules that are crucial for the assessment of territorial claims, especially the techniques of intertemporal law and critical date, as well as evidentiary rules, are presented. An essential resource for practitioners, international law academics and public officials including judges and arbitrators, this Research Handbook is a highly original collection of scholarship and research on territorial disputes and their settlement.

This fully updated second edition of Jurisdiction in International Law examines the international law of jurisdiction, focusing on the areas of law where jurisdiction is most contentious: criminal, antitrust, securities, discovery, and international humanitarian and human rights law. Since F.A. Mann's work in the 1980s, no analytical overview has been attempted of this crucial topic in international law: prescribing the admissible geographical reach of a State's laws. This new edition includes new material on personal jurisdiction in the U.S., extraterritorial applications of human rights treaties, discussions on cyberspace, the Morrison case. Jurisdiction in International Law has been updated covering developments in sanction and tax laws, and includes further exploration on transnational tort litigation and universal civil jurisdiction. The need for such an overview has grown more pressing in recent years as the traditional framework of the law of jurisdiction, grounded in the principles of sovereignty and territoriality, has been undermined by piecemeal developments. Antitrust jurisdiction is heading in new directions, influenced by law and economics approaches; new EC rules are reshaping jurisdiction in securities law; the U.S. is arguably overreaching in the field of corporate governance law; and the universality principle has gained ground in European criminal law and U.S. tort law. Such developments have given rise to conflicts over competency that struggle to be resolved within traditional jurisdiction theory. This study proposes an innovative approach that departs from the classical solutions and advocates a general principle of international subsidiary jurisdiction. Under the new proposed rule, States would be entitled, and at times even obliged, to exercise subsidiary jurisdiction over internationally relevant situations in the interest of the international community if the State having primary jurisdiction fails to assume its responsibility.

This book offers a comprehensive, highly informative and interdisciplinary study on territorial integrity and the challenges globalization, self-determination and external interventions present. This study aims at not only to fill an epistemological gap in this regard, but also answer the question of whether International Law is adequately equipped to help states address these challenges. The author argues that the biggest threat that many states are confronted with today is their disintegration rather than their obsolescence, and that International Law has not often been able to prevent that eventuality. In fact, states, when they were not destroyed by war, managed to survive, thanks to the flexibility of territoriality, i.e. their ability to adjust to difficult situations as they arose. It is this understanding of adaptation that urges an increasing number of states today to revive territorial autonomy and restore an original understanding of self-determination in which democracy is a pivotal factor in establishing congruence between the states and their nations. While this move is endorsed by International Law, it is not the case for globalization; for their own sake, proponents of globalization should recognize that the states are irreplaceable as long as they remain the sole providers of protection for their peoples.

This book examines the challenges posed to contemporary international law by the shifting role of the border, which has recently re-emerged as a central issue in international relations. It posits that borders do not merely correspond to States’ boundaries: indeed, while remaining a fundamental tool for asserting States’ power, they are in fact a collection of constantly changing spatial limits. Consequently, the book approaches borders as context-specific limits and revisits notions traditionally linked to them (jurisdiction, sovereignty, responsibility, individual rights), while also adopting the innovative approach of viewing borders as phenomena of both closedness and openness. Accordingly, the first part of the book addresses what happens “within” borders, investigating the root causes of the emergence of spatial limits and re-assessing apparent extra-territorial assertions of State power. In turn, the second part not only explores typical borderless spaces, but also more generally considers the exercise of States’ and international organisations’ powers and prerogatives across or “beyond” borders.