announcement of it. But Natural Reason requires that the Discovery should be notified to other Nations, otherwise if actual Possession has not ensued, the obvious inference would be that the Discovery was a transient act, and that the territory was never taken possession of animo et facto. A Discovery accordingly, which has been concealed from other Nations, has never been recognised as a good title to bar them from settling in a territory: it is an inoperative act. Lord Stowell" has accordingly noticed, as an indisputable fact, that in newly discovered countries, where a title is meant to be established for the first time, some act of Possession is usually done and proclaimed as a Notification of the fact. tion of Dis covery. §112. The mode of Notification, in other words, Notificawhat acts should be respected by the Comity of Nations, and be held sufficient to make known the intention of a Nation to avail itself of a discovery, has been a subject of much dispute. The disposition however of Writers, as well as of Statesmen, has been to limit rather than to extend the Comity of Nations in this respect. Thus Vattel writes, "The Law of Nations will therefore not acknowledge the Property and Sovereignty of a Nation over any uninhabited countries except those of which it has really taken possession, in which it has formed settlements, or of which it has actual use. In effect, when Navigators have met with desert countries in which those of other Nations had in their transient visits erected some monuments to shew their having taken some possession of them, they have paid as little regard to that empty ceremony, as to the regulation of the Popes, who divided a great part of the world between the Crowns of Castile and Portugal1." 11 The Fama, 5 Robinson, p. 115. 12 Droit des Gens, L. I. § 208. To the same purport, Martens writes, "Supposé que l'occupation soit possible, il faut encore qu'elle ait eu lieu effectivement; que le fait de la prise de possession ait concouru avec la volonté manifeste de s'en approprier l'objet. La simple déclaration de volonté d'une Nation ne suffit pas, non plus qu'une Donation Papale, ou qu'une Convention entre deux Nations pour imposer à d'autres le devoir de s'abstenir de l'usage ou de l'occupation de l'objet en question. Le simple fait d'avoir été le premier à découvrir ou à visiter une île, &c., abandonnée ensuite, semble insuffissant, même de l'aveu des Nations, tant qu'on n'a point laissé de traces permanentes de possession et de volonté; et ce n'est pas sans raison qu'on a souvent disputé entre les Nations, si des croix, des poteaux, des inscriptions, &c., suffisent pour acquérir ou pour conserver la propriété exclusive d'un pays qu'on ne cultive pas 13." Klüber to the same effect, writes thus, "Pour acquérir une chose par le moyen de l'occupation, il ne suffit point d'en avoir seulement l'intention, ou de s'attribuer une possession purement mentale; la déclaration même de vouloir occuper, faite antérieurement à l'occupation effectuée par un autre, ne suffirait pas. Il faut qu'on ait réellement occupé le premier, et c'est par cela seul, qu'en acquérant un droit exclusif sur la chose, on impose à tout tiers l'obligation de s'en abstenir. L'occupation d'une partie inhabitée et sans maître du Globe de la Terre, ne peut donc s'étendre plus loin qu'on ne peut tenir pour constant qu'il y ait eu effectivement prise de possession, dans l'intention de s'attribuer la propriété. Comme preuves d'une pareille prise de possession, ainsi que de la continuation de la possession en propriété, peuvent servir 13 Précis du Droit des Gens, § 37. tous les signes extérieurs qui marquent l'occupation firmatory 113. It is difficult to lay down absolutely what Acts conconstitutes a sufficient sign, that a territory has been of Occupaeffectively reduced into Possession after Discovery. tion. Bynkershock, who was originally opposed to the continuance of any exclusive Right founded on Occupation, unless natural Possession was maintained, subsequently qualified his view in deference to the objections of Christian Thomasius: "Res immobiles," writes Thomasius 15, "quæ sunt nullius, occupatæ esse censentur, si cæptæ sunt custodiri, aut si cæperim solo uti ad id, ad quod destinatum est naturâ, et usus durat; V. G. Si ædificaverim in solo, si solum vallo et fossa vel sæpibus circumdederim, conservatur possessio, quamdiu continuatur custodia, etiamsi non incumbam possessioni, sed abeam. V. G. Si ager consitus sit, et fructus a me satos ferat, si ager circumseptus sit, si ædes extructæ maneant, si clavem ad ædes habeam, si alios arceam ab usu rei.” “Hæc ille," writes Bynkershoek, "et recte, nam omnibus his, quos recenset, modis possessio ex apprehensione cœpta, porro continuatur, et continuata possessione continuatur dominium. Cultura 14 Droit des Gens, § 126. Huberum de Jure Civitatis, L. II. 15 Annotationes ad Ulricum S. II. § 43. X Discovery Settlement itaque et cura agri possessionem quam maxime indicat. Neque enim desidero vel desideravi unquam, ut tunc demum videatur quis possidere, si res mobiles ad instar testudinum dorso ferat suo, vel rebus immobilibus incubet corpore, ut gallina solent incubare ovis. Præter animum possessionem desidero, sed qualemcungue, quæ probet me nec corpore desiisse possidere 16 §114. When Discovery has been followed by the followed by Settlement of a Nation, other Nations in accordance constitutes with the Law of Nature recognise a perfect title in title. the occupant. Where discovery has not been imme a perfect diately followed by settlement, but the fact of discovery has been notified, other Nations by courtesy pay respect to the notification, and the Usage of Nations has been to presume that Settlement will take place within a reasonable time; but unless discovery has been followed within a reasonable time by some sort of settlement, the presumption arising out of notification is rebutted by non user, and lapse of time gives rise to the opposite presumption of Abandonment. Thus in the Conference" held at London between the Commissioners of Great Britain and of the United States of North America in 1826, the British Commissioners, Messrs. Huskisson and Addington, maintained these views: "Upon the question how far prior discovery constitutes a legal claim of Sovereignty, the Law of Nations is somewhat vague and undefined. It is however admitted by the most approved writers, that mere accidental discovery, unattended by exploration, by formally taking possession in the name of the discoverer's Sovereign, by occupation and settlement more or less permanent, 17 British Statements annexed to the 16 De Dom. Maris, c 1. Protocol of the Sixth Conference. by purchase of the territory on receiving the Sovereignty from the Nation, constitutes the lowest degree of title; and that it is only in proportion as first discovery is followed by any or all of these acts, that such title is strengthened and confirmed." Mr. Gallatin, on the other hand, the Plenipotentiary of the United States 18, thus states the American view, "It may be admitted, as an abstract principle, that, in the origin of Society, first occupancy and cultivation were the foundation of the rights of private property and of National Sovereignty. But that principle, on which principally, if not exclusively, it would seem that the British Government wishes to rely, could be permitted, in either case, to operate alone and without restriction, so long only as the extent of vacant territory was such, in proportion to the population, that there was ample room for every individual and for every distinct community or Nation, without danger of collision with others. As in every Society, it had soon become necessary to make laws, regulating the manner in which its members should be permitted to occupy and to acquire vacant land within its acknowledged boundaries; so also Nations found it indispensable for the preservation of peace, and for the exercise of distinct jurisdiction, to adopt particularly, after the discovery of America, some general rules, which should determine the important previous question, Who had a right to occupy.' 6 "The two rules generally, perhaps universally, recognised and consecrated by the Usage of Nations, have followed from the nature of the subject. "By virtue of the first, prior discovery gave a right 18 American Counterstatement annexed to the Protocol of the Seventh Conference. |