The International Law of Discovery: Acts of Possession on the Northwest Coast of North America
Arctic Ambitions: Captain Cook and the Northwest Passage, 2015
28 Pages Posted: 17 Feb 2015
Date Written: February 15, 2015
Abstract
European countries and the United States used the international law of exploration and colonization to claim the Northwest coast of North America. Under this well established international law, called the Doctrine of Discovery today, two of the most important elements to establish ownership and sovereignty over newly discovered territories was for a Euro-American nation to be the first discoverer and to physically possess and occupy the region. In attempting to prove first discoveries, Europeans and Americans engaged in what are called "acts of possession." In the vast majority of these situations, the "discovering" country was unable to actually occupy the claimed area for decades and even centuries after a first discovery; so they undertook symbolic acts of possession that were designed to establish their legal claims to own the territories under international law. These acts were intended to prove which country had found the area first and to symbolically establish actual occupation. Claiming land in this manner sounds ludicrous today. However, this was deadly serious business in international law and international relations from the mid-1400s until the mid-1900s. Conflicts over the ownership of territories newly found by Europeans and Americans often led to endless diplomatic maneuverings, international arbitrations, court cases, and even wars. Today, we cannot ignore the history, law, and practices of exploration and discovery because, according to another principle of international law called inter-temporal law, modern-day territorial titles "are to be judged by the law in force at the time the title was first asserted and not by the law of today." It must be noted that this international law and the actions of Euro-Americans almost totally ignored the pre-existing rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Keywords: Captain James Cook, Northwest Passage, Alaska, discovery of Alaska, Europeans in Alaska, Doctrine of Discovery, international law, inter-temporal law
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