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The Legal Status of Eastern Greenland Case: a Note on its Legal Aspects By 1.K. T. Chao"

T his d ispute was one betweennmark and Norway regarding the

vereignty over territory in Easterneenland.! Greenland" inhabited byigenous Eskimos, was fu 'st 'dis

vered' by Scandinavian explorers900 A.D. and colonised abouthundred years later by people

apparently Norwegian origin (inuding the Icelander Eric the Red).wo settlements (Eystribygd andcstribygd) were founded at theuthern end of the western coast and

ame tributary to Norway duringthirteenth century, only to lapsece more in the 16th century. From0 until 1814 the Kingdoms of

enmark and Norway were uniteder the same crown. After the

appearance of the two colonialtlements expeditions were made to

vV es tern Greenland, but althoughNorway's claim was maintaineriverbally, DO permanent colonies weresupported. These claims seem tohave been generally recognised byneighouring states. The first permanent colony to be established, however,was in 1721, by Hans Egede, aNorwegian, and it was succeededduring the eighteenth century, byother settlements along the Westcoast. Trading concessions and monopolies were granted and regulationswere enacted, in terms which ingeneral refer to 'Greenland' and notsimply to the specific s e t t l e m e n t s ~ .In 1814, under Article 4 of the Treatyof Kid, Denmark was forced, to cedethe Kingdom of Norway to Sweden,excluding, i l l ler alia, Greenland. 3

LL.B., LL.M.(NCU), LL.B.(Calltab.), Ph.D.(Edinburgb ) . Vi siting Ass ociate Professor of International Law, National Chengchi University.

I) PCIJ Series A/B, No. 53, p.n. For discllssion, see Paul Knaplund, "The Dano-:\'orwegianOlnfliet over Greenland" , 19 AJIL (i925), p.374; Knud Berlin, Denmarks Right To Greenland,English tran s.by P.T. Federspiel (Oxford U. P., 1932), pp.1l25, 151-60; Lawrence Preuss, " T h ~Dispute between Denmark and Norway oyer th " Sovereignty of East Greenland " , 26 AJIL(1 932), p.469; Charles Cheney Hyde, "The Case concerning the Legal Status of EasternGreenland", 27 AJIL (1933), p.732; Manley O. Hudson, "The Eleventh Year of the Permanent Court of Interna tional Justice", ibid., p.27; idem, "The Twelfth year of th e PermanentCourt of International Justice". 28 AJIL (1934), p. 4; idem , World Court Reports (Wash in!;(on: Carnegie End owment for International Peace, 1938), Vol. 3, p.148; Oscar Savarlien, TheEa s/em Greenland Case in l-lislorical Pel'speclive, U niv . of fl orida :vlonographs, Social Sc ienceNo. 21 ( University of Florida Press, 1964).

2) PCIJ Series A/ B, :\'0. 53, pp.27-30.3) Ibid. , pp . 30-31; also 7 BFSP, p. 114.

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GREENLANDP r " ; ~ l !i '.;C, "I'lA/I;SVfFl

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that Greenland was in fact anand that it was not connected

land to the North American Con-The first landing on the

had been made by thewhaler Scoresby in 1822,

the first settlement on the sameDanish settlement at

(65 0 36'N) in 1894. InDanish trading and mission

established at Scoresbyand Danish hunting compa!1ies

from 1919 onwards tobetween Scoresby Sound and(77 0 North). O n the

the most northern ly Danishsettlements m iss ion and

- -were at Thule and77 0York (also about North) .

Norwegian side, expeditionsmade during the summer to the

ast coast from 1889 onwards. Fromexpeditions wintered thereccasionally and subsequently a wireess station was set up at Mygg-Bukts

aud cabins werebuilt in the Norwegian area. 5From 1915 onwards Denmark

egan to seek explicit recognition ofer potential claims to the Easternoast of Greenland- - first from the

States in the context of theession of the Danish Antilles, then

1919 from Norway (in the contextf Norwegian claims to Spitzbergent the Vesailles Peace Conference) ,

the United Kingdom,Italy and Japan, and sub

5) PCl] Ser ies A/ B, No. 53, pp. 3J 38.6) Ibid.7) Tran slation from th e French leXl supplied

sequently from Sweden and Norway .In one terminology or another, thisrecognition was given by all thoseasked, except Norway, which wasprimarily concerned with obtainingassurances for Norwegian huntingand fishing interests on the East coast.Denmark was unwilling to give suchassurances, and decided to rely on afavourable verbal undertaking givenby the Norwegian foreign minister in1919.6 O n 10th May 1921 a Deneewas issued as follows:

. . . know all men that Dan ishT rading, M ission and Hunt ingStations have been est ablishedon the East and West coastsof Greenland with the resultthat the whole of that countryis henceforth linked up withDan ish colon ies and stationsunder the authority of ehDanish Adm inistration of Grecnland.?

Diplomat ic nego tiations betweenDenmark and Norway over the succeeding years resulted in the signinof a Convention in 1924 to deal wirhthe question of hunting and fish ingon the eastern coast of Greenland.Norway continued to pursue the view,however, that those parts of Green-land which had not been occupied insuch a manner as to bring themeffectively under the administrationof the Danish Government were inthe condition of terrae nullius, andthat if they ceased to be terrae !lullillS

by the Dani sh (; r.l\" !"rnment . ibid., p. 3.3.197

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they must pass under orwe Iano v e r e i g n t y . It was dec id d by

Denmark to refer the question to hepeI], and on 10th J uly 1931 Norwayissu d a R oyal Proclamat iun stat ingthat

[t1he occupation of the countryin Eastern Greenlan I betweenCarlsberg Fj ord on the soutand Bessel Fjord on the north,carried out on J un 27 th,1931 ,is officially con lrmed, so faras concerns the t rri ory extending from latitude 71 0 30 1 tllla titude 75 0 40' T. , an thesaid territory is place uncle;Norwegian sovereignty. (j

This proclamation furthermore namedpersons to exercise police powers andthe territory was denominated 'EirikRaudes Land.'JO

The question of sovereignty overthis area was submitted to the PCI]the following day. Denmark soughta declaration that this Proclaimation'add any steps taken in this connectionby the Norwegian Government const itute a violation of the existing legalsituation and are accordingly unlawfuland invalid'. Norway, in reply, soughta declaration that 'Denmark has nosovereignty over Eirik Raudes Land'and that 'Norway has acquire the

8) Ibid., p.39.

sovereignty over Eirik Raudes Land'"The Dani sh assertion tha t th

forwe ian 'oc u at ion' was in alirested upo three a s e s :( l .l that Den lark had enjoyed and

had peacefully nd continuouslyexerc ised an uncontested sovereignty over Greenland for a I ngtime;

( 2) that Norway had recognisedD anish sovereignty ver the ,holeof Greenland;

( 3) that, in any case, Norway waestopped by quid pro quo,