Artificial Islands and the law of Nations

Structures at sea which are described by the term “artificial islands” have, notwithstanding great diversity in form, three characteristics in common. They are exclusively the work of man, surrounded by water and used for work on a fixed place. As such they “occupy” more or less permanently a certain part of the sea. One can interpret the term more narrowly and understand by it only structures made by man from natural sources to form a piece of land, surrounded by water which rises above it at high tide. Prof. François 4 distinguishes in this way between: “artificially shaped elevations of the seabottom which have an essential island character” and, “permanent, bottom-based installations”. He regards the first category as territory and attaches to it a territorial sea, which the second group does not have. In positive law there is no room for François' distinction because international law recognises only naturally formed islands as islands in the legal sence. Until recently the distinction was in practice not important because the building of “islands” in this narrower sense was not undertaken and academic opinion did not regard such construction as probable. Events, however, have changed this.