The Right of Conquest: The Acquisition of Territory by Force in International Law and Practice

Sharon Korman

Oct 1996 · Clarendon Press

About this ebook

This is an enquiry into the place of the right of conquest in international relations since the early sixteenth century, and the causes and consequences of its demise in the twentieth century. It was a recognized principle of international law until the early years of this century that a state that emerges victorious in a war is entitled to claim sovereignty over territory which it has taken possession. Sharon Korman shows how the First World War - which led to the rise of self-determination and to calls for the prohibition of way - prompted the reconstruction of international law and the consequent abolition of the title by conquest. Her conclusion, which highlights the merits and defects of the modern law as a vehicle for discouraging war by denying the title to the conqueror, challenges many of the assumptions that have come to constitute part of the conventional wisdom of our times. This is a study, not of international law narrowly conceived, but of the place of a changing legal principle in international history and the contemporary world.

Ratings and reviews

By Pradip Bhaumik,, STANFORD JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, 1997 33; 413: .. "A work of sweeping scope...balanced and judicious. The thinking is lucid yet refined. Korman's work is the most up-to-date study of seizure of territories, and the only one that charts the progress of both the ideology and the application of the right of conquest and the political events and legal principles that gradually undermined and finally dismantled it ."

About the author

Dr Sharon Korman is Israel specialist, Société Génd'erale Strauss Turnbull Securities Ltd., London