Nicolas J. Watkins
Publications
Disputed Sovereignty in the Falkland Islands: The Argentina-Great Britain Conflict of 1982The Colony of the Falkland Islands and Dependencies lies in the South Atlantic Ocean three hundred miles east of the southern tip of South America. The Falkland Islands themselves consist of East Falkland and West Falkland, separated by the Falkland Sound, and an additional one hundred smaller islands. Although the Falklands are a British crown colony, sovereignty over them is also claimed by Argentina. This comment analyzes and evaluates the competing British and Argentine claims to the Falkland Islands and thereby attempts to determine the legality of actions taken by Argentina and Great Britain in the armed conflict between the two countries which occurred in 1982. When the events upon which a nation bases a claim to sovereignty over territory occurred over three hundred years ago, evidence of an acquisition of sovereignty is often scant. Yet, in the area of international law relating to claims of title to territory, nothing is more important than the history of events upon which each claimant founds its claims. Often, the success of a claim to sovereignty has turned upon the performance of an act which at first might have seemed innocuous. For this reason, the following account of the 1982 conflict and the historical background to the dispute over sovereignty in the South Atlantic are necessarily long and detailed. The dispute between Argentina and Great Britain and their respective claims to territorial sovereignty over the Falkland Islands dates back to the eighteenth century. It appeared to be a "rather abstract quarrel between the two nations, neither of which had a vital national interest at stake." Indeed, it seemed as though it was a dispute which was "neither important enough to resolve, nor unimportant enough to forget." However, this was to change drastically on April 2, 1982.