Dear Martin,

I too would be interested in learning of recent formal state-to-state sales.  I'm not sure but I do not think Diego Garcia was a sale; rather it might be more akin to a shared sovereignty.  In lighter vein:

From the past, while not exactly a "sale", in 1661, as dowry for Catherine de Braganza, the islands that became known as Bombay were ceded to England.  In turn, the islands were leased to the British East India Company in 1668 for a sum of £10 per annum. 

From the future, Dennis Hope of Nevada has been selling extraterritorial real estate.  He has so far sold more than 400 million acres of the moon, leaving a further 8 billion acres still up for grabs.  Mr Hope claims to be selling 1,500 lunar properties a day. He allocates land by simply closing his eyes and pointing to a map of the Moon.  He has reportedly made US$9 million by his transactions: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6533169.stm.

While not inter-State sales, there is the phenomenon of "private islands", see for a generic overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_island which states: "Virtually all islands in the world are claimed by the various governments in the world, so the laws of the claiming country would apply and gaining sovereignty would be virtually impossible, but some people still try to set up their own micronations on islands.  Since islands can, under international law, only be claimed if they are at least 30 cm above the high tide point, some have even attempted to build sovereign islands, like real-estate millionaire Michael Oliver's attempt at building a libertarian city-state called the Republic of Minerva in the southern Pacific Ocean."  How would this be classified?

With good wishes,
Dev

Devashish Krishan
Baker Botts (UK) LLP
London, England



-----Original Message-----
From: International boundaries discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Martin Pratt
Sent: 13 November 2008 13:28
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Maintaining the higher ground v. Stemming the Tide


> However, bona fide "sales" of sovereign territory are extremely
umcommon and have been
> since more than a hundred years.

The most recent territorial sale I can think of is the sale of the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands) to the USA in 1917 for US$25 million. I understand the primary driver behind the purchase was concern on the part of the US government that Germany was about to annex Denmark, and might then build a naval base in the islands.

Does anyone know of a more recent formal state-to-state territorial sale?

m a r t i n

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Martin Pratt
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Durham University
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