INTRODUCTION

STATES
1. The1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of
States sets out four criteria for statehood.

2. Article1of the Convention provides that the state as a person of

international law should possess the following four
qualifications:
(a)a permanent population;
(b)a defined territory;
(c)government;and
(d) capacity to enter relations with the other states.
 State territory
1. The territory of the state comprises not only the land mass but its national waters, i.e.,
rivers, lakes, bay, estuaries, other enclosed areas and extends to maritime zone
(territorial sea) and the air space above its land and water territory.

2. Besides territorial sea, the coastal State also exercises certain sovereign rights over its
contiguous zone, continental shelf and exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

3. A state can also acquire additional territorial right over dependent territories or by way
of leases or servitudes over the territory of other states. A state comes into existence
with a territory and it may acquire new territories subsequently.
 MODES OF ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY
There are five modes of acquisition of territory that are traditionally accepted:
1. Occupation
2. Accretion
3. Cessation
4. Annexation
5. Prescription
Cession
It is the transfer of sovereignty over state territory by the owner state to another
state . The transfer of territory by one sovereign state to another is the most usal
form of acquiring derivative title to land.
Example:The way Australia acquired sovereignty over its territory of Christmas
Island in the Indian Ocean.
In Union of India u Sukumar Sen Gupta, the SC observed that giving the facility of using "been
bigha" to Bangladesh under the 1974 and 1982 agreements to have access to its two enclaves of
Dahagram and Angarpota on lease do not amount to "cession of the said territory or transfer of
sovereignty in respect of the same". The clause 2 of the 1982 agreement clearly provided,
"sovereignty over the leased area shall continue to vest in India".