A Brief Analysis of the Defining Standard of the National Territorial Boundary Treaty

Abstract

Territorial sovereignty refers to the supreme power a country has over its territory itself and the people and things within its territory, and its content includes ownership and jurisdiction. The state’s ownership of the territory means that the state has the right to possess, use and control all the land and resources within its territory, so the importance of territorial treaties is self-evident.

The area under the jurisdiction of a sovereign state usually includes land (territorial land), internal waters (including rivers, lakes, and internal seas) within a country’s national borders (borders), as well as their sub beds, subsoils, and airspace (airspace). Sometimes it also includes territorial waters. There are often disputes over territorial disputes between different countries. Therefore, the International Court of Justice needs to make correct judgments based on the treaty.

In judicial practice, a treaty accepted after analysis has a decisive weight in determining the territorial sovereignty and boundary of the disputed country. Therefore, the parties will provide a large amount of treaty evidence to the International Court of Justice based on their respective interests. In general, the case law of the International Court of Justice on territories reveals two common disputes. The first type of dispute is related to the existing territorial treaty; the second type of dispute involves not the existence of the territorial treaty itself, but its validity. Territorial sovereignty belongs to a country’s core interests. Based on the provisions of Articles 31-32 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the International Court of Justice adopted defining standards such as “substance superior to form” and “consent” when resolving disputes over national territorial border treaties. However, some treaties concerning territorial sovereignty will cause disputes, so the definition of territorial treaties needs to be further determined.