Dear Pho Hoang Han,

Although it seems likely that your inquiry relates purely to the marking of 
land boundaries, which I shall leave others to comment on, I thought that I 
should mention a legal point in case you (also?) have in mind markers to 
mark sovereignty over islands.  Although the recent Qatar v. Bahrain case 
in the International Court of Justice (in which I participated) seems to 
indicate that doing so can be effective (see the article by me in British 
Year Book of International Law(2001), 183-211) , this was because a 
potential competing claimant failed to protest quickly enough (and the 
British decision about this in the 1930s was pretty dubious anyway, in my 
view).  Such a case is unlikely to be replicated in modern conditions, 
where there are means for detecting activity on offshore islands etc. 
pretty quickly, and States are all very conscious of the importance of 
maintaining their claims to sovereignty (because of the zones they control) 
- you will know of such activity in your own area.

The other point I should mention is that international law does not 
recognize attempts (e.g. by adding concrete or structures) to transform 
low-tide elevations into islands - though there is one exception and some 
interesting grey areas.  See for example art. 121 (1) and 7(4) of the Law 
of the Sea Convention 1982.  Sorry that pressure of time does not allow me 
to provide further references or details at present: if these issues are of 
interest, please get back to me.

If your question purely concerned the technicalities of erecting land 
boundary markers in swamps etc, please excuse the digression.

Best wishes to you all for 2006,

Maurice Mendelson

At 03:12 10/01/06, Pho Hoang Han wrote:
>Dear Coluagues:
>
>Im working on a proposal to the government of the direction and methods to 
>build marker (concreat, stones) on the swarm, fen etc where the mood is 
>unstable...I would be very appreciate if you could provide me with any 
>comments, any soruces that i could refer to.
>
>Thank you very much in advance
>
>Warmest Regards.
>
>
>*************
>Pho Hoang Han (mmm.)
>Manager of Information Division- Center for Information.
>Boundaries Committee - Ministry of Foreign Affairs
>58 Nguyen Du. Hanoi - Vietnam
>tel.84 08046041(off);844 7563376(h); fax.84 08046029; cel. 0913593801.
>*Stay Cool and Keep Smiling!:D
>______________
>
>
>This message has been scanned for viruses by Mailcontroller

Professor Maurice Mendelson, Q.C.
Blackstone Chambers Barristers
Blackstone House
Temple, London EC4Y 9BW,
England.

Tel. +44 20 7583 1770; fax +4420 7822 7350; email 
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website www.blackstonechambers.com

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