3 The Characterization of Occupation

The conceptual definition of occupation—effective control of a power (be it one or more states or an international organization, such as the United Nations) over a territory to which that power has no sovereign title, without the volition of the sovereign of that territory—require elaboration and concretization. This is the task of this chapter, which explores the spatial and the temporal scope of occupation, as well as the identity of the occupant and the nature of the sovereign’s consent (or lack thereof) to the occupation. Because the occupant’s authority does...