On Whether Low-tide Elevation Is Subject To Appropriation

Five "modes" of acquiring territory have traditionally been distinguished,namely:occupation,prescription,accretion,cession,and subjugation/conquest.This category do contain the essence of "territory acquisition",but more or less deviates from rules and principles maintained in practice.International court and tribunals have developed legal principles of territory acquisition in a series of territorial dispute cases since the early 20th century,which accumulate to an integrated part of rules and principles governing territory acquisition in international law.With those defined portion of this globe which is susceptible of appropriation gradually disappears,the concluded test of the establishment of title,namely "effective occupation",has been given some new contents,for example,in the case of small maritime features the content of the general legal principles relating to acquisition of sovereignty may become reduced to a bare minimum.In some circumstances,sovereignty may be established on the basis of a relatively modest display of state function in terms of quality and quantity,as long as these activities could be regarded legally relevant.In the progress that territorial claimant further extends to maritime features,whether the low-tide elevation is subject to appropriation brings a controversy.For this paper,the first part is to make a brief review on rules and principles of territory acquisition applied to maritime features,throwing some light upon"effectivites".This part aims to illustrate that sovereignty over minor maritime features may be established on the basis of a relatively modest display of state powers in terms of quality and quantity.The second part of this paper is to inspect the establishment course of the regime of low-tide elevations in international treaty law,in which the law of the sea has played the central role.The inspection manifests that in international treaty law,the regime of low-tide elevations were from beginning to end discussed in the scope of rules governing the establishment of baseline,frequently compared with islands,but the relevant provisions in the 1958 TSC and the 1982 CLOS attribute significantly different maritime entitlements to these two kinds of insular features,a distinction between extended sovereignty to territorial sea and acquired sovereignty has been given as well.But anyhow,the establishment of the regime of low-tide elevations could not provided any clear answers to the question whether the low-tide elevation could be subject to appropriation.The third part of this paper is to make a critical thinking on whether the low-tide elevation is subject to appropriation by reassessing arguments and reasoning in decided territorial dispute cases,which provides that,dealing with Qatar v.Bahrain,Nicaragua v.Colombia,Eritrea v.Yemen,etc.,the international court and tribunals well and exactly concern this question as it remains an open matter;on the other hand,juridical decisions reveal that as components of an archipelago,the low-tide elevation could be subject to appropriation.The fourth part of this paper is to analyse whether "submerged at high tide" necessarily excludes the appropriation of the low-tide elevation itself;on the other hand,the "unity theory" might find a suitable place in appropriation of the low-tide elevation,for the low-tide elevation as components of an archipelago could be appropriated.Then,this paper goes to its conclusion that,low-tide elevation's capability of appropriation lies in both itself and as components of an archipelago.