Victor Prescott

International Frontiers and Boundaries: Law, Politics and Geography

Acknowledgements List of Illustrations 1. Introduction 2. Frontiers 3. The evolution of international boundaries 4. International boundary disputes 5. International Law and Territorial Boundaries 6. Maps as Evidence of Territorial Frontiers 7. River Boundaries and International Law 8. The Americas 9. The Middle East 10. Africa 11. Asia 12. Europe 13. Land boundaries on islands off Southeast Asia 14. Antarctica Annexes Illustrations Bibliograpy Legal Materials Table of Cases Table of International legal instruments Name index Subject index

Contributions of the United Nations to solving boundary and territorial disputes, 1945–1995

Abstract Boundary and territorial problems are defined and analyzed serially, with examples illustrating various types of land and maritime disputes in some detail. The work of the International Court of Justice (ICJ or World Court) in these cases receives the most attention, but the role of the Security Council is also surveyed. Territorial disputes are classified as those arising from decolonization, those involving invasion and those involving secession. The United Nations has been involved in settling many boundary and territorial disputes, the former largely through the ICJ and the latter mainly through non-judicial involvement. If the current trend toward fragmentation of states continues, the UN may well be involved in more such disputes.

The completion of marine boundary delimitation between Australia and Indonesia

This study describes and analyses the 1997 maritime boundaries delimited by Australia and Indonesia. Apart from the Zone of Co‐operation in the Timor Gap, which might be replaced eventually by one or more boundaries, the maritime delimitations between the two countries are now complete. The latest delimitations continue the pattern that these two countries use to produce imaginative solutions to overlapping claims. The treaty deals with boundaries between Christmas Island and Java and in the western Timor Sea and they were concluded as a whole package with nothing being agreed until everything was agreed. In the area north of Christmas Island, where a single boundary was drawn to divide the water‐column and the seabed, Australia secured about one‐third of the overlapping area. In the western Timor Sea, the countries continued the pattern of overlapping jurisdictions that had been effective since 1981 east of the Zone of Co‐operation. In these overlapping zones Australia has jurisdiction over the seabed wh...

8. The Americas

The boundaries, in the two continents, were produced by distinct processes and considered separately. This review suggests five conclusions. First the indigenous populations, that had established themselves in north, central and south America, played no significant role in fixing the international boundaries that divide the two continents. Second in North America, the early involvement of French and British colonists and administrators and Russian hunters, was overtaken by divisions between colonists seeking independence and British authorities maintaining control over Canada. Third in Central and much of South America, Spanish authorities and colonists overcame the indigenous population and the difficult terrain to establish several large colonies. Fourth in the beginning and medium term, the Portuguese seemed more successful than any of the other European invaders by spreading widely throughout the Amazon Basin. Finally it is clear that throughout the Americas the European colonists played the dominant role in fixing the international boundaries.Keywords: colonists; continents; European colonists; independence; indigenous populations; international boundaries; The Americas

13. Land Boundaries on Islands off Southeast Asia

Geography and the colonial policies of various maritime powers combined to give the history of international land boundaries on islands off Southeast Asia two distinct qualities. First there are only five land boundaries throughout this extensive zone and Indonesia is concerned with four of them. Second the procedures that resulted in the present divisions were appropriate to the ocean that Magellan called Pacific. Four of the boundaries were associated with the Netherlands East Indies that was established before the colonisation of Australia and the islands of the southwest Pacific Ocean and involved negotiations with Portugal or Britain. The boundary separating Indonesia and Papua New Guinea lies close to the limit of Dutch annexations in the first half of the 19th century.Keywords: Borneo; boundaries; Guinea; Indonesia; Southeast Asia; Timor

Aboriginal I Claims to Seas in Australia

In 1992 the famous judgment in the Mabo (No.2 case), in the High Court of Australia, determined that the common law of Australia recognised and protected native title claims in accordance with traditional laws and customs. Within six years nearly 800 claims had been lodged with the Native Title Tribunal and 70 per cent of them were in Queensland and Western Australia. Nearly one-third of those claims included areas of sea. Before 1992 scholars had demonstrated that clan estates included marine sections along tropical coasts. Only two claims to seas or sea-bed have been tested in the courts. This paper reviews five questions that will recur in future similar cases. They deal with the location of claims, their possible extent, the evidence that will justify them, the delimitation of successful claims and accommodations regarding the use of claimed seas between indigenous and other peoples.