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    Clipperton Island Arbitration (France V Mexico)

    Uploaded by

    Bruce Ford
    1) In 1858, a French ship declared Clipperton Island, an uninhabited island, to be French territory. In 1897, Mexico claimed ownership based on Spain's prior discovery. Victor Emmanuel III of Italy was chosen to arbitrate. 2) While Spain may have discovered it first, Mexico had not acted on the island until 1897, so its historical claim was insufficient. France had occupied uninhabited Clipperton Island in 1858 when it was terra nullius, giving France a legal right to occupy it. 3) Though France did not typically administer the unpopulated island, it did not intend to abandon it either. France's claim through terra nullius was sufficient to establish ownership over Clip

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    Clipperton Island Arbitration (France V Mexico)

    Uploaded by

    Bruce Ford
    103 views1 page
    1) In 1858, a French ship declared Clipperton Island, an uninhabited island, to be French territory. In 1897, Mexico claimed ownership based on Spain's prior discovery. Victor Emmanuel III of Italy was chosen to arbitrate. 2) While Spain may have discovered it first, Mexico had not acted on the island until 1897, so its historical claim was insufficient. France had occupied uninhabited Clipperton Island in 1858 when it was terra nullius, giving France a legal right to occupy it. 3) Though France did not typically administer the unpopulated island, it did not intend to abandon it either. France's claim through terra nullius was sufficient to establish ownership over Clip

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    clipperton arbitration

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    1001b_Clipperton

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    1) In 1858, a French ship declared Clipperton Island, an uninhabited island, to be French territory. In 1897, Mexico claimed ownership based on Spain's prior discovery. Victor Emmanuel III of Italy was chosen to arbitrate. 2) While Spain may have discovered it first, Mexico had not acted on the island until 1897, so its historical claim was insufficient. France had occupied uninhabited Clipperton Island in 1858 when it was terra nullius, giving France a legal right to occupy it. 3) Though France did not typically administer the unpopulated island, it did not intend to abandon it either. France's claim through terra nullius was sufficient to establish ownership over Clip

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    103 views1 page

    Clipperton Island Arbitration (France V Mexico)

    Uploaded by

    Bruce Ford
    1) In 1858, a French ship declared Clipperton Island, an uninhabited island, to be French territory. In 1897, Mexico claimed ownership based on Spain's prior discovery. Victor Emmanuel III of Italy was chosen to arbitrate. 2) While Spain may have discovered it first, Mexico had not acted on the island until 1897, so its historical claim was insufficient. France had occupied uninhabited Clipperton Island in 1858 when it was terra nullius, giving France a legal right to occupy it. 3) Though France did not typically administer the unpopulated island, it did not intend to abandon it either. France's claim through terra nullius was sufficient to establish ownership over Clip

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 1

    CLIPPERTON ISLAND ARBITRATION (France v Mexico)

    2 RIAA (1932) 1105; transl. in 26 AJIL 390, Victor Emmanuel III, Sole Arbitrator

    Court: Sole arbitrator, Victor Emmanuel III

    Sources of Law:
    Municipal Law: Declaration of French sovereignty published by Government of Hawaii
    Customary Law: general state practice on the acquisition of land

    Facts:
    On November 17th, 1858, a French commercial vessel sailed by a completely uninhabited island, which became
    known as Clipperton Island. A French lieutenant on board the ship declared the island to be French territory, and
    promptly notified the proper authorities in Honolulu, Hawaii. It became well known that the island belonged to
    the French, but little was done on the island, so it remained largely undeveloped and inhabited by very few.
    In the year 1897, a Mexican vessel landed on the island, and its passengers took over the island by force,
    claiming that Spain had discovered the island first decades earlier. As Spain’s “successor state”, the island
    belonged to Mexico. Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy at the time, decided to be the arbitrator between France
    and Mexico and settle who rightfully possessed Clipperton Island.

    Issue(s):
    Did the island belong to Mexico because the island had been discovered by Spain? Did France effectively
    occupy Clipperton Island, and therefore prove its capacity to possess the land?

    Holding:
    Mexico could not assert its historic right to Clipperton Island, even if Spain had discovered the island in the past.
    France had occupied the island effectively and logically and therefore there was no reason to believe that the
    island did not belong to France. Clipperton Island was a French possession.

    Reasoning:
    Mexico had not acted on its proposed historical right to the Clipperton Island territory until the expedition in
    1897. So, even though the island’s connection to Mexico, as well as Spain, is historically accurate, a historical
    assertion of ownership at this time was not sufficient.
    When France arrived at the island in 1858, the island was unoccupied and totally unclaimed, in a state of
    territorium nullius. A piece of land in this state is able to be occupied by any state. For this reason, there is no
    doubt that France had the legal right to occupy Clipperton Island. However, the question remained: had France
    occupied the island in accordance with international law?
    To keep the island under France’s authority, the new land had to be properly maintained and occupied.
    The typical methods would include spreading the authority of French law and installing institutions that
    maintain it, as well as creating a societal structure with facilities and services for the population. However, the
    island was completely uninhabited when it was discovered. Therefore, there was no population to control and
    maintain, and thus no one to exercise French authority over. Logically, these typical signs of proper occupation
    could not have been used in the case of Clipperton Island.
    Then came the question of abandonment. If France was found to be in the process of abandoning
    Clipperton Island, or guilty of ignoring it already, its claim on it could be considered invalid. Investigations into
    French international policy found no animus to abandon the island in any capacity; Not developing the island
    was not the same as abandoning it. Since France could not exercise its authority in the typical ways, those means
    of measurement could not be used to legitimize or delegitimize its ownership either. With these facts in mind, all
    that France needed to do to claim ownership in the case of Clipperton Island was to claim it through territorium
    nullius, which it had. So Clipperton Island belonged to the French.

    Prepared by Ian Clark

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