Principle under international law that prohibits states from the use of force to annex territory
Territorial integrity
is the principle under
international law
where sovereign states have a right to defend their borders and all territory in them from another state. It is enshrined in
Article 2(4)
of the
UN Charter
and has been recognized as customary international law.
[1]
Under this principle, forcible imposition of a border change is an
act of aggression
.
In the post-World War years, there has been tension between this principle and the concept of
humanitarian intervention
under Article 73.b of the
United Nations Charter
"to develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of the peoples, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free political institutions, according to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and their varying stages of advancement."
[2]
Some of the strongest safeguards of territorial integrity are
rule of law
such as
Charter of the United Nations
and
nuclear deterrence
.
[3]
History
[
edit
]
Prior to the
modern era
, there was not a clearly defined system of international boundaries.
[4]
Rather,
authority
over territorial spaces was non-linear, often overlapping and shifting.
[5]
[6]
According to Mark Zacher, "precisely surveyed national borders only came into clear view in the eighteenth century".
[7]
Guntram Herb dates the emergence of clearly defined political territories to the 15th century.
[8]
The
Peace of Westphalia
in 1648 is commonly considered to have established territorial integrity as a cornerstone of
sovereignty
, embodied in the concept of
Westphalian sovereignty
, but even this did not necessarily reflect any absolute right to particular territory.
[9]
Even after Westphalia, territorial exchange remained common between states. In turn, these states were culturally diverse and politically disorganized, and people were not collectively identified by state borders.
[10]
The emergence of
nationalism
and
self-determination
in the 18th and 19th centuries began to alter people's perception of the states in which they resided. Nationalism promoted the belief that territory belonged to a
nation
and that the territorial integrity of a nation should be respected.
[11]
Guntram Herb argues national identity is "dependent on territory because only territory provides tangible evidence of the nation's existence and its historical roots, and a nation needs a clearly demarcated national territory to demand its own state".
[12]
John Etherington agrees, stating: "Underlying all nationalist claims over territory is the proposition that nation and territory ultimately belong to each other, to the extent that the characteristic features of each cannot be understood without making reference to the other".
[13]
He observes how, because all nationalist movements necessarily make territorial claims in a world marked by competing claims over territory, this becomes an essential part of their self-justification.
[14]
Following
World War I
, the establishment of the
League of Nations
ushered in a new era of international cooperation. The League's
Covenant
codified territorial integrity as a key principle of international law.
[15]
However, the political conditions for maintaining the territorial status quo after the war were not always maintained and various post-war settlements involved exchanges of territory irrespective of local populations.
[16]
With the formation of the
United Nations
(UN) and, later, such organizations as the
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
(now
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
), territorial integrity became a well-established part of international resolutions. The
UN Charter of 1945
affirmed states’ obligation not to use force to alter state boundaries.
[17]
Enforcement difficulties in the 21st century
[18]
have led to controversy on possible re-emergence of the
right of conquest
as
international law
.
[19]
In a changing world
[
edit
]
The recent (post-World War II) strict application of territorial integrity has given rise to a number of problems and, when faced with reality "on the ground", can be seen as too artificial a construct.
[20]
At the
2005 World Summit
, the world's nations agreed on a "Responsibility to Protect", allowing a right for humanitarian intervention. It has been argued that this could create a flexible application of concepts of sovereignty and territorial integrity, easing the strict adherence and taking into account the
de facto
status of the territory and other factors present on a case by case basis.
[21]
The
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1674
, adopted by the
United Nations Security Council
on April 28, 2006, "Reaffirm[ed] the provisions of paragraphs 138 and 139 of the 2005
World Summit Outcome Document
regarding the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity".
[22]
However, this responsibility to protect refers only to the ability of external powers to override sovereignty and does not explicitly involve the changing of borders.
The
International Court of Justice advisory opinion on Kosovo's declaration of independence
claims that territorial integrity is not violated as far as international law is concerned by declarations of independence in themselves.
Writing on the cross-border institutions created in
Northern Ireland
following the
Good Friday Agreement
, Cathal McCall observes how these configurations constituted a "functional transterritorial model of governance for Northern Ireland based on the principles of interdependence, inclusion and consent" as opposed to the previous "exclusivist territorial political pillars of modern Irish nationalism and Ulster unionism".
[23]
That is, the exclusivist assumptions of territorial integrity, embodied in
Irish nationalism
and
Ulster unionism
were blurred by the Agreement's implementation of cross-border decision-making.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Corten, Olivier (2011). "Territorial Integrity Narrowly Interpreted: Reasserting the Classical Inter-State Paradigm of International Law".
Leiden Journal of International Law
.
87
: 88 – via Hein Online.
- ^
"UN Charter Chapter XI"
.
- ^
Mazarr, Michael J. "Virtual Territorial Integrity: The Next International Norm." Survival August-September 2020: Crisis and response. Routledge, 2023. 101-118.
- ^
Zacher, Mark W. (2001).
"The Territorial Integrity Norm: International Boundaries and the Use of Force"
(PDF)
.
International Organization
.
55
(2): 215?250
. Retrieved
28 December
2023
.
- ^
Goettlich, Kerry (2019).
"The rise of linear borders in world politics"
.
European Journal of International Relations
.
25
(1): 203?228.
doi
:
10.1177/1354066118760991
.
- ^
Zacher, p.216
- ^
Zacher, p.216
- ^
Herb, Guntram H. (1999). Kaplan, David H.; Herb, G. Henrik (eds.).
Nested Identities: Nationalism, Territory, and Scale
. United Kingdom: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 10.
ISBN
9780847684670
.
- ^
Zacher, p.216
- ^
Zacher, p.217
- ^
Zacher, p.217
- ^
Herb, p.9
- ^
Etherington, John (2007).
"Nationalism, Exclusion and Violence: A Territorial Approach"
.
Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism
.
7
(3): 24?44.
doi
:
10.1111/j.1754-9469.2007.tb00160.x
. Retrieved
20 February
2024
.
p.25
- ^
Etherington, John (2007).
"Nationalism, Exclusion and Violence: A Territorial Approach"
.
Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism
.
7
(3): 24?44.
doi
:
10.1111/j.1754-9469.2007.tb00160.x
. Retrieved
20 February
2024
.
p.25
- ^
Zacher, p.219
- ^
Zacher", p.220
- ^
Zacher, p.221
- ^
Jeria, Michelle Bachelet (2016).
"The Challenges to International Law in the 21st Century"
.
Proceedings of the ASIL Annual Meeting
.
110
: 3?11.
doi
:
10.1017/S0272503700102435
.
ISSN
0272-5037
.
- ^
Mulligan, Michael. "The re-emergence of conquest: international law and the legitimate use of force." Liverpool Law Review 41.3 (2020): 293-313.
- ^
Stuart Elden (University Of Durham)
Boundaries-in-the-making (Part 1): Critical perspectives on national borders
Archived
2006-08-23 at the
Wayback Machine
paper presented on 4 June 2005 to the
Association of American Geographers
Archived
2007-02-06 at the
Wayback Machine
2005 Annual Meeting
- ^
Annan calls for endorsement of Responsibility to Protect
Archived
2005-09-10 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Resolution 1674 (2006)
Archived
2009-02-23 at the
Wayback Machine
on the
United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine
website
- ^
McCall, Cathal (2001).
"The Production of Space and the Realignment of Identity in Northern Ireland"
.
Regional & Federal Studies
.
11
(2): 1?24.
doi
:
10.1080/714004696
. Retrieved
25 February
2024
.
, pp.2-3
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Sebastian Anstis and Mark Zacher (June 2010). "The Normative Bases of the Global Territorial Order."
Diplomacy and Statecraft
21
: 306?323.
- Mark Zacher (2001). "The Territorial Integrity Norm."
International Organization
55
: 215?250.