‘That Little Book’: R.Y. Jennings, The Acquisition of Territory in International Law

Abstract

Abstract The Acquisition of Territory in International Law has been an indispensable work in the field for 60 years. It remains so, if for shifting reasons. Robert Jennings’ treatment of the applicable law is so succinct, and his bald statements of fact as to the nature of international law so unapologetic, that the text will invariably reward close re-reading by international lawyers of all persuasions. Acquisition of Territory goes far beyond its apparent brief of summarizing the relevant lex lata and offering an expert opinion on key issues of lex ferenda. Viewed from the right light, the work is a prism that refracts the world of early 1960s international law. Jennings deftly sidesteps and postpones fundamental questions of anti-colonial justice that some would have expected to be addressed in a lecture series on the acquisition of territory given in December 1962. The reading down of global anti-colonial movements to a ‘policy question’ beyond the strict concerns of jurists says much of the culture of British international law in the early 1960s. Jennings uses law to relegate calls for colonizing powers to be held to account to some future time, in some differently constituted international system. Amongst his kind, then and now, he is hardly alone.