Terra nullius

Terra nullius is a Latin expression meaning "nobody's land". Since the nineteenth century, it has been used in international law to refer to the principle by which territories deemed not to belong to any recognised sovereign state could be acquired through occupation. In historical scholarship, the term is also used retrospectively to describe colonial practices in which European powers claimed sovereignty over lands by referring to them as empty, vacant, or unowned, including in territories where indigenous populations were present. Since the twentieth century, the application of terra nullius to inhabited territories was rejected in several jurisdictions as part of increasing recognition of Indigenous rights, including in Mabo v Queensland in Australia. Today Antarctica remains as the only major landmass that is sometimes considered to be wholly or partially terra nullius. Other territories sometimes claimed to be terra nullius include Bir Tawil, a strip of land between Egypt and Sudan, and four pockets of land on the banks of the Danube, on the Croatia-Serbia border; both due to border disputes where both competing claims involve assigning a particular piece of territory to the other party.