ABSTRACT
In the study of the law on territorial acquisition, public international law advocates that the state is the primary type of legal person. Despite the gaping holes in the international law of territorial title, there are international conventions governing island and maritime law once the issue of sovereignty is settled. Customary Law states that, historically, five modes of territorial acquisition have emerged as mechanisms by which countries legally acquired territory: discovery and occupation; conquest; prescription; cession; and accretion. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines an Exclusive Economic Zone as "an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, subject to the specific legal regime established in this Part, under which the rights and jurisdiction of the coastal State and the rights and freedoms of other States are governed by the relevant provisions of this Convention."
