CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VIII (1) ContemporaryEurasia81 | Page 86

STRATEGIES ON TERRITORIAL ACQUISITION- A CASE STUDY ON THE PEDRA …
principle in its written or oral statements, instead, it just emphasized that it
has implemented long-term peaceful control and administration over
Horsburgh Lighthouse as well as Pedra Branca. During the stage when the
Court was examining the legal status of Pedra Branca before the
establishment of the lighthouse, Singapore attempted to claim that this island
was terra nullius. 19 However, it lacked strong evidence to support this claim.
In fact, there was evidence from the former British Singaporean official
records and reports indirectly showing that Johor ruled the region where
these three disputed islets are located. Although this evidence had time
discontinuity, the Court recognized their effects on proving Johor’s original
title to the islets in this region. 20 As can be seen from the Court’s opinion,
the result of Singapore’s claim of terra nullius regarding these three islets
was uncertain at the beginning of this stage. It can be further inferred that
Singapore was actually aware of the uncertainty of this claim, according to
the evidence regarding Pedra Branca known to it.
Singapore then began to emphasize its conduct in Pedra Branca as
well as the surrounding waters after the Court confirmed Johor’s original
title to this island. There are four pieces of evidence regarding Singapore’s
effective control over Pedra Branca:
1. Singaporean authority’s management of shipwrecks in this island’s
surrounding waters;
2. The Port Authority of Singapore approved foreign oceanic
investigators’ landing on Pedra Branca, including several
Malaysian officials;
3. Singaporean navy installed military communication facilities on
Pedra Branca, which manifested contents of its control and became
diversified;
4. Singapore has disclosed its plan of land reclamation on Pedra
Branca, though it was not implemented. 21
On the contrary, Johor and Malaysia failed to protest any of
Singapore’s conduct for more than one hundred years, which implied
Singapore’s control was peaceful in this period.
The advocacy regarding effective control of Pedra Branca adopted by
Singapore skillfully avoided a logical fallacy which might appear to be
adverse to Singapore’s claim, due to its failure of providing strong evidence
to support its respective claims during the two stages. In fact, the content of
this advocacy is similar to the characteristics of the principle of prescription.
However, Singapore did not put forward its claim based on the principle of
prescription, and it simply focused on emphasizing its long-term effective
control.
19
Pedra Branca Judgment, 29-30, paras. 39-42.
See Johor’s ruling over the maritime nomad Orang Laut who mainly inhabited in the region
where Pedra Branca lies, Ibid., 37, 49, 99, paras. 68-69, 117, 288-290.
21
See Memorial of Singapore,109-113, 116-118, 123-124, 107-109.
20
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