Social Contract Theory and International Relations by Stephen Chadwick

Author:Stephen Chadwick
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783031642210
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

5.4 Colonialism and the Law of the Sea

So far we have only discussed the behaviour of states with respect to other states. We must now turn to the issues involved when states interact with areas of the world which are not formed into states.

5.4.1 Colonialism

Colonialism involves states expanding into territories which may or may not already contain people, but where they do, the people do not have a centralised sovereign with the power to make and enforce laws, regulate the economy and maintain order within its territory.

Kant’s second article rules out imperialism, but does it rule out colonialism? Kant did not see anything wrong with states obtaining new land on which nobody lived. This is, after all, how the human race expanded around the world in the first place (Kant 2013, 119–120). However, he has a different view of land which already contains an indigenous population.21 He says that mankind has a “right to communal possession of the earth’s surface. Since the earth is a globe, they cannot disperse over an infinite area, but must necessarily tolerate one another’s company; and no one originally has any greater right than anyone else to occupy any particular portion of the earth” (Kant 1991b, 106). But although no one originally had a greater right than anyone else to occupy certain areas, it does not mean that once all areas have been occupied this is still the case. North America, in the eighteenth century, was commonly perceived to be ownerless and its indigenous inhabitants were viewed as counting for little. Kant disagrees with this belief and thinks that occupancy is sufficient for a claim to the right of property (Kant 1991b, 106).22 He says, “in order to acquire land is it necessary to develop it (build on it, cultivate it, drain it, and so on)? No … When first acquisition is in question, developing land is nothing more than an external sign of taking possession, for which many other signs that cost less effort can be substituted” (Kant 1991, 267). The only way that land can be taken from indigenous people is by contract and “the ignorance of those inhabitants with respect to ceding their lands” must not be exploited (Kant 1991c, 357).

Locke also believes that all the earth, and everything produced by nature, originally belonged to “mankind in common” (Locke 2016, 24). However, he does not accept that occupancy is sufficient for a claim to the right of property. According to Locke’s theory of property, which will be discussed in detail in Chap. 9, by mixing labour individuals can appropriate property, and areas such as North America (in his time) are still the common property of mankind. He thinks that it is “labour … which puts the greatest part of value upon land, without which it would scarcely be worth anything”, and so “land that is left wholly to nature, that hath no improvement of pasturage, tillage, or planting, is called, as indeed it is, waste” (Locke 2016, secs. 42–43). Locke uses this

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