Dear colleagues,
In his message earlier today, Brian Murphy commented on the hypothetical
emergence of an island within the territorial sea. Some of you may be
aware that there has been quite a lot of media interest in Europe
recently concerning the prospect of the (re)emergence of a volcanic
island in the Mediterranean Sea around 23 nautical miles off the
southern coast of Sicily.
Most of the interest revolves around the fact that the last time the
volcano emerged above the sea surface - in 1831 - the first person to
land on the 'island' was a British naval officer, who planted a flag and
claimed it for Great Britain. During the six months that the island
remained above water, it was apparently also claimed by the King of
Sicily and possibly France and Spain as well. The question that is now
being posed is: what is the status of Graham Island (as it was named by
the British)/Ferdinandia (as it is known in Italy) today?
The best-researched article on the history of the island that I have
come across can be found at
http://www.rosegeorge.com/frameworks/generic/public_users/morearticles.a
sp?ArticleID=39. I imagine that we could have an interesting discussion
concerning the significance of the various effectivites mentioned in the
article but, in the context of the discussion on accretion, I would like
to throw out the following questions:
1) Are we witnessing the re-emergence of an old island or the emergence
of a new island which just happens to be in the same place as an old
one?
2) This is a feature that is currently (presumably an undisputed) part
of the Italian continental shelf. Assuming that there is no pre-existing
title dating from the 19th century, would its current status have any
direct bearing on title to any island that may appear in the future? If
not, would I be able to claim it for my country if I was the first to
set foot on dry land?
Regards,
m a r t i n
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Martin Pratt
Director of Research
International Boundaries Research Unit
Department of Geography
University of Durham
South Road
Durham DH1 3LE
United Kingdom
+44 (0)191 374 7704 (direct line)
+44 (0)191 374 7702 (fax)
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http://www-ibru.dur.ac.uk (World Wide Web)
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