McNeil on The Intertemporal Law Doctrine's Application to the Acquisition of Colonies in the Americas

Kent McNeil, Osgoode Hall Law School, has published The Intertemporal Law Doctrine’s Application to the Acquisition of Colonies in the Americas. Gere is the abstract.

The intertemporal doctrine provides that international disputes have to be resolved in accordance with the international law that existed at the time the events giving rise to the dispute took place, not at the time the matter is adjudicated.1 It is thought to be impermissible to apply current standards to events that occurred in the past when different legal principles and rules were the norm. This doctrine applies as much to acquisition of colonies as to other international issues.2 So in order to determine whether a European nation acquired sovereignty over an overseas territory, it is necessary to determine and apply the international law extant at the time sovereignty was claimed. As international law has evolved from the time European overseas colonial expansion began in the fifteenth century, this means that different standards can apply in diverse colonial contexts, depending on when sovereignty is alleged to have been acquired.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.