The following terminology is commonly used when discussing Taiwanese politics, regional trade and economic issues, territorial sovereignty, the laws of war, Taiwan's international legal status, United States administrative authority in overseas territories, and the rise of China as a world power.
Amalgamate -- to combine into a unified or integrated whole, to unite.
Amicus Curiae -- one (as an individual or organization) that is not a party to a particular lawsuit but is allowed to advise the court regarding a point of law or fact directly concerning the lawsuit. In particular, a brief of an amicus curiae may be filed, based on Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, Rule 29.
Amnesty -- (1) a warrant granting release from punishment for an offense, (2) A general pardon granted by a government.
Annexation -- (1) to append or attach, especially to a larger or more significant thing, (2) to incorporate (territory) into an existing political unit such as a country, state, county, or city. [Note: military occupation must be carefully distinguished from annexation.]
APEC -- the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, whose members include Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, People's Republic of China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, Rep. of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam.
ASEAN -- the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose members include Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Autonomous -- (1) of or relating to a self-governing entity, (2) self-governing with respect to local or internal affairs, (3) having the right or power of self-government.
Belong to -- (1) to be a member of a group, (2) to fit into a group naturally, (3) to be in one's possession.
Bill of Rights -- the first ten amendments to the US Constitution.
Black Gold Politics -- a general term which includes a wide variety of politically corrupt activities, often taking the form of a collusion between officials and various interest groups, including the interference of organized crime in politics, vote buying, kickbacks, pay-offs, pressure from high-level officials and elected representatives to "bend the rules" or "look the other way", and all other forms of official corruption.
Benign -- of a kind and gentle disposition; showing gentleness and mildness; tending to exert a beneficial influence; favorable; having little or no detrimental effect.
Body Politic -- (1) a politically organized body of people under a single government, (2) a number of individuals spoken of collectively, usually as united by political ties, or organized for a political purpose, and generally with overtones of a "collective whole or totality".
British Common Law -- Anglo laws of the US Constitution; "unwritten" laws for comprehensive legal interpretations of formal "written" words of supreme law; military commissions are common law courts for war crimes or laws of occupation.
Cede -- verb of cession; Taiwan was ceded in SFPT.
Cession -- (1) an area surrendered in a treaty; legal ownership is transferred for both jurisdiction and proprietary ownership purposes, (2) transfer of the control of or sovereignty over specific property or territory, especially by treaty.
Chargeability, Rules of -- Rules of US immigration laws for the "green card zone" for quota purposes; naturalization requirements for becoming a US citizen have requirements of five years residency within the green card zone; rules for "where" the immigrant came from (eg. Taiwan, not China); Chinese aliens were 'chargeable' for a head tax under the Chinese Exclusion Act upon officially entering 'green card zone'; under TRA, this legal determination is based upon jus soli (law of soil); technical classification of self-governing dominion for INA purposes if under peace treaty cession.
Chauvinism -- (1) militant devotion to and glorification of one's country; fanatical patriotism, (2) prejudiced belief in the superiority of one's own gender, group, or kind.
Citizens of the Islands -- Insular law nationality of peace treaty cessions coming under customary law and US Nationality Laws. It is not a "citizen of the Union" like a US citizen, but it is distinguished as "non-voting citizenship" or an insular citizenship of any US territory or self-governing dominion. Puerto Rican nationals were much later "collectively naturalized" for US citizenship of the Union under the 14th Amendment naturalization laws. In general, only the US Nationals of the Samoan nationality were never collectively naturalized Union citizens. For the self-governing dominion status of the Filipino citizenship (aka. island citizenship), they had a separate non-citizenship status of the USA. This is comparable to the US Trust Territory citizenship of those noted SFPT cessions in Article 3.
Civil Affairs Administration -- that form of administration established in friendly territory whereby a foreign government pursuant to an agreement, expressed or implied, with the government of the area concerned, may exercise certain authority normally the function of the local government. Such administration is often established in areas which are freed from enemy occupation.
Civil Government -- [in the practice of the United States] (1) administrative authority conducted by civilian officials in a government of territory (or a state) under constitutional powers of the US Congress, (2) a government as distinguished from "military government."
Civil Law -- (1) the legal system derived from Roman and Germanic practice and set out in national law codes. (2) As distinguished from public law, the body of law dealing with the rights of private citizens.
Civil Rights -- rights that a nation's inhabitants enjoy by law. [Note: The term "civil rights" is broader than "political rights," which refer only to rights devolving from the franchise and are held usually only by a citizen; moreover unlike "natural rights," civil rights have a legal as well as a philosophical basis.]
Civil Society -- (1) the aggregate of non-governmental organizations and intermidiary institutions that manifest interests and will of the people, (2) individuals and organizations in a society which are independent of the government. [Note: in the practice of the United States, the concept of "civil society" does not exclude aliens.]
Civil War -- a war between factions or regions of the same country.
Civis Romanus Sum -- Latin phrase spoken by the Apostle Paul to invoke the legal protections of Roman law and Roman courts. "I am a citizen of Rome," said St. Paul in the Bible (Acts 22:25) and this legal doctrine is further enumerated by the Johnson v. Eisentrager case for the Laws of War and SFPT.
Comity -- the practice or courtesy existing between countries whereby the laws and institutions of each are recognized and respected. Comity is to be distinguished from international law, because international law is a binding obligation and comity is not. (From Latin comitas: "courteousness" or comitas gentium: "the courteousness of nations.")
Common Law -- the legal system of England and countries that were once English colonies. It is based primarily on court-made rules or precedent.
Commonwealth -- a self-governing dominion "organized" by Congressional legislation or the higher sovereign authority, but with foreign state characteristics (eg. foreign relations may be allowed or barred); a dependent territory if a US Possession (eg. Puerto Rico) or a self-governing dominion if not a US possession (eg. Filipino Commonwealth, Post-Occupied Cuba, Taiwan cession)
Conquest -- the acquisition of territory by force. (From Latin conquirere: "to seek for.")
Contiguous Territory -- territory which is neighboring, adjacent, or has a shared boundary.
Crimes Against International Law -- serious violations of international law including crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, and war crimes.
Crimes Against Peace -- (1) the planning, preparing, initiating, and/or waging a war of aggression in violation of international law, (2) participating in a conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity or war crimes.
Crimina Juris Gentium -- crimes for which international customary law imposes criminal responsibility on individuals and for which all states may punish an offender. These include crimes against humanity and crimes against peace. (Latin: "crimes against the law of nations.")
Custom -- a long established tradition or usage that becomes customary law if it is (a) consistently and regularly observed and (b) recognized by those states observing it as a practice that they must obligingly follow.
Customary Law -- international public law of treaties; "unwritten" law of SFPT and Laws of War; binding unless modified by legislation or other proper legal authority; see Article 5 of 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, or Article 9 of 1898 Treaty of Paris (US-Spain Peace Treaty); has supreme law status.
Debellatio -- (pre-Napoleonic era legal premise of) complete subjugation of a belligerent nation usually involving loss of sovereignty. [sentence example: The Punic Wars ended with the Roman debellatio of Carthage.] [Note: the term debellatio refers to a conquered people who dissolved, leaving no one to assert their rights as a people. Contrasingly, occupatio bellica refers to a conquered people who persist, leaving the defeated nation as a legal subject.]
De Facto -- in reality, in fact, existing. (Latin: "in fact.")
De Jure -- according to law. (Latin: "by right" or "by law.")
Denizen -- (1) inhabitant, (2) a person admitted to residence in a foreign country, (c) an alien admitted to rights of citizenship.
Departmentalism -- a general term which denotes the tendency of government employees to require the strict following of their own department rules, regulations, etc., without regard for the requirements, stipulations, or superseding directives of other departments (bureaux, ministries, etc.) with whom their regulations may (or do) conflict. As such, it is often equivalent to Catch-22ism.
Dependent Territory -- US possession, US outlying possession, Commonwealth, insular area; not a self-governing dominion, mandate territory, or trust territory.
Dispositive Treaty -- a treaty which has stipulations relating to the disposition of property. Importantly, in regard to a territorial cession, international law holds that once the obligations of territorial cession have been fulfilled, the relevant clause of the treaty itself ceases to exist. Hence, the act of territorial cession is not affected by later cancellation, abrogation, or nullification of the treaty.
Dominion -- sovereignty, jurisdiction, or ownership by an independent country.
Dominion, Self-governing -- self-governing area under benign sovereignty of another country; a foreign state equivalent under international law or TRA; although not a trust territory or mandate territory, but treated similarly in international law (in many respects) as being foreign state equivalents.
Escheat -- (1) reversion of property to the state in the absence of legal heirs or claimants, (2) property that has reverted to the state when no legal heirs or claimants exist. [Note: for a the situation of a "limbo cession" as specified in a peace treaty after war, the title to the territory escheats to the principal occupying power as an interim status condition.]
Ethnic -- (1) of or relating to a sizable group of people sharing a common and distinctive racial, national, religious, linguistic, or cultural heritage, (2) being a member of a particular ethnic group, especially belonging to a national group by heritage or culture but residing outside its national boundaries, (3) of, relating to, or distinctive of members of such a group.
Ethnicity -- (1) ethnic character, background, or affiliation, (2) an ethnic group.
Fiduciary Relationship -- the relationship between a trustee, beneficiaries, and property held in trust.
FM 27-10 -- US Army [Field Manual] FM 27-10 "The Law of Land Warfare".
GC -- Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 12 August 1949.
General Law -- Law that is derived from the conduct and practices of states in their dealings between themselves and that they expressly or impliedly consent to be bound by.
GPW -- Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, 12 August 1949.
GPW 1929 -- Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, 27 July 1929.
Government-in-exile -- a temporary government moved to or formed in a foreign land by exiles who hope to rule when their country is liberated.
Guano Islands -- US federal law based upon terra nullius which allowed US private citizens to legally claim the unoccupied islands for the guano industry and for placing them under American dominion. Still on the law books but it is not utilized to any extent. However, this federal legal jurisdiction is still applicable as a special territorial jurisdiction claimed and controlled by terra nullius for islands subject to the administrative authority of the USA like Navassa Island near Haiti. The "Guano Islands" are still part of the US dominion established by terra nullius without any peace treaty cessions.
Guantanomo Bay, Cuba -- naval reservation of land after 1898 US-Spanish Treaty of Peace ceding Cuba to the USMG. After mutual agreement to terminate USMG as of May 20, 1902, jurisdiction by the USA over Guantanomo Bay was continued under subsequent treaties with Cuba.
Habeas Corpus -- a legal appeal to the sovereign to for the detaining party to bring the corpus or the body of the detainee before the court to address the legal charges of their detention.
H.IV. -- Hague Convention No. IV Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, 18 October 1907.
H.R. -- Annex to Hague Convention No. IV, 18 October 1907, embodying the Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land.
H.V. -- Hague Convention No. V Respecting the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers and Persons in Case of War on Land, 18 October 1907.
Hegemony -- the predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others.
Immigration and Nationality Act -- US law originally promulgated in 1952. Commonly abbreviated as "INA," it underwent several conceptual changes in later decades. Originally, the INA admitted only a certain number of immigrants of each nationality, but changes passed by Congress in 1965 gave preference to immigrants with skills needed in the United States and to close relatives of US citizens.
Incorporated Territory -- territory which is Congressionally mandated to be fully protected by the US Constitution; (based on the 14th Amendment doctrine of incorporation for Bill of Rights protections)
Insular Law -- colonial laws of USA; customary laws of international public law which also become the domestic law of the USA; applicable to interim status of a peace treaty; and includes territorial jurisdiction. US Insular Law applies to Cuba (from April 11, 1899, to May 20, 1902), and to Taiwan (from April 28, 1952 to the present) because they are "inside" the principle of cession by conquest followed by cession by treaty.
Interim Status -- as spoken of under the law of occupation, "interim status" is a non-final political status.
International Law -- the body of legal rules and norms that regulates activities carried on outside the legal boundaries of states. According to Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, the sources of international law are: (1) international conventions of general or particular nature; (2) international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as law; (3) the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations.
International Public Law -- jus feciale or international law of countries, not private matters.
Irredentism -- claiming a right to territories belonging to another state on the grounds of common ethnicity and/or prior historical possession, actual or alleged.
Jingoism -- extreme nationalism often characterized by a belligerent foreign policy; fanatical patriotism.
Juridical Person -- legal person of local laws or legal entity of international laws; government as a corporation of international public law; a legal entity created by national or international law.
Jus Ad Bellum -- the rights of states to start wars. (Latin: "the right to initiate war.")
Jus Civile -- the Roman law applied to Roman citizens. (Latin: "the civil law.")
Jus Cogens -- elements of international laws of war which are considered as universally binding without regards to being a treaty signatory; eg. genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity; a peremptory norm of international law; one that all states must observe.(Latin: "compulsory law.")
Jus Feciale -- international public law for war and diplomacy; eg. Laws of Diplomacy are the Vienna Conventions, and Laws of War are the Hague and Geneva Conventions.
Jus Gentium -- the Roman law applied to dealings between non-Romans as well as to dealings between Romans and non-Romans. (Latin: "the law of nations.")
Jus in Bello -- the law regulating combat or the waging of war.(Latin: "the law during war.")
Jus Sanguine -- law of blood; a birth to parents gains their nationality but not by birthplace; Family Census Registers in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, China.
Jus Soli -- law of soil; any birthplace legally under dominion of the sovereign (eg. king, emperor, constitution) automatically makes one a natural-born subject or national by birthplace; sovereign must only be defacto to be legitimate.
Laws of Nations -- the body of legal rules binding on states in their international dealings with other states.
Laws of Occupation -- the subset of the Laws of War which deals with military occupation.
Laws of War -- the body of laws governing armed conflict. In relation to the Taiwan status, the laws of war spoken of are "the customary laws of warfare in the post-Napoleonic period."
Ligeance -- the connection between sovereign and subject by which they were mutually bound, the former to protection and the securing of justice, the latter to faithful service; allegiance. [Note: also written as ligeancy and liegance.]
Litigation -- (1) to engage in legal proceedings, (2) legal proceedings in a court.
Major Insular Areas -- the pre-existing five major insular areas of the USA: American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Taiwan is the sixth major insular area.
Martial Law -- emergency government by military during domestic crisis like terrorism; never to be indefinite or permanent; the municipal laws of "military government" used within "domestic territory" only like the "Confederate States" of the South in the US Civil War.
Metropolitan -- (1) of, relating to, or constituting the home territory of an imperial or colonial state, (2) of, relating to, or characteristic of a major city or urbanized area.
Military Commissions -- military courts of a common law origination for the laws of war; US Court of Berlin (US v. Tiede, 1979); concurrent to courts martial for soldiers, "exclusive" for civilians in occupied areas.
Military Government -- civil administration of military government for interim cessions; commonly composed of both civil and military components; technically interim and provisional government of undetermined cessions; not martial law but can be indefinite; legally used for "foreign territory" under control by conquest; the international laws of "martial law." In general, military government is the form of administration by which an occupying power exercises governmental authority over occupied territory.
Military Occupation -- (1) invasion, conquest, and control of a nation or territory by foreign armed forces, (2) a condition in which territory is under the effective control of foreign armed forces, (3) the military government exercising control over an occupied nation or territory. [Note: military occupation is not annexation and the doctrine of "prescription" does not apply.]
Natural Person -- a human being.
Nexus -- legal junction or the point of entering jurisdiction; (internal law is applicable).
Organic Law -- Constitution (or Charter) which organizes the juridical person called a state or country; like Articles of Incorporation for a corporation to become a legal person or juridical person; the body of laws (as in a Constitution or Charter) that form the original foundation of a government; or one of the laws that make up such a body of laws.
Own -- (1) having control over, (2) having legal right to a property, (3)having or holding as property, or as title to property.
Owner -- (1) one who has legal title or right to something, (2) one with an interest in and often dominion over property. [Note: contrary to the cynical adage: "Possession is nine-tenths of the law," possession does not necessarily make one a legal owner.]
Ownership -- (1) the relation of an owner to the thing possessed, (2) possession with the right to transfer possession to others, (3) the act of having and controlling property, (4) the state, relation, or fact of being an owner.
Panoply -- (1) a splendid or striking array, (2) something that covers and protects. [sentence example: U.S. citizens in Taiwan are entitled to the full panoply of Bill of Rights protections.]
Plenum Dominium et Utile -- a legal concept used to express a duality of dominion, which is "title" and "control/usage" of property. There is the incorporeal issue of the title of "dominium plenum," which designates the holding of the title by a superior power, and the corporeal issue of "utile dominium," which involves the custodial matters of those whose use their labor to till the soli of the superior power ("the king" or "the crown").
Polity -- (1) the form of government of a nation, state, church, or organization, (2) an organized society, such as a nation, having a specific form of government.
Post-capitalist Society -- a society where the basic economic resource "the means of production," (to use the economist's term) is no longer capital, nor natural resources, nor labor, but rather knowledge. Value is now created by "productivity" and "innovation," both of which are applications of knowledge to work. (Peter Drucker).
Postliminium -- (1) [Roman Antiquity] the return to his own country, and his former privileges, of a person who had gone to sojourn in a foreign country, or had been banished, or taken by an enemy, (2a) (international law) the right by virtue of which persons and things taken by an enemy in war are restored to their former state when coming again under the power of the nation to which they belonged, (2b) that right in virtue of which persons and things taken by the enemy are restored to their former state, when coming again under the power of the nation to which they belong. [Note: the transfer of the title of territory by treaty is an internationally recognized valid method for transmission and reassignment of "ownership." Regardless of the future outbreak of war between the affected parties, or the military occupation of each other's countries, international law does not recognize any claim to "retroactive reversion of title" to previously ceded territory, and the doctrine of "postliminium" cannot be invoked under such circumstances.]
Prescription -- (1) the process of acquiring title to property by reason of uninterrupted possession of specified duration, (2) acquisition of ownership or other real rights in movables or immovables by continuous, uninterrupted, peaceable, public, and unequivocal possession for a period of time.
Property -- (1) something, as land and assets, legally possessed, (2) a piece of real estate, (3) something tangible or intangible to which its owner has legal title, (4) the right of ownership; title.
Proprietary -- (1) held as property of a private owner, (2) of, relating to, or characteristic of a proprietor, (3) used, made, or marketed by one having the exclusive legal right.
Protected Person -- any individual legally able to invoke the Laws of War for their protection, which in general includes two main groups (1) "enemy nationals" within the national territory of each of the parties to the conflict and (2) "the whole population" of occupied territories (excluding nationals of the occupying power), but more specifically also includes stateless persons, refugees, POWs, criminal detainees, non-repatriated persons, neutral aliens, nationals of Allied Powers without diplomatic relations, etc. Refer to 12 August 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Article 4: "Persons protected by the Convention are those who, at a given moment and in any manner whatsoever, find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of a Party to the conflict or Occupying Power of which they are not nationals." Normally, a protected person must be a national of a signatory country in order to invoke the GC protections but extensions can be provided through relationships with co-belligerents.
Public International Law -- That division of international law that deals primarily with the rights and duties of states and intergovernmental organizations between themselves.
Public Law -- Constitutional and administrative law. It is not included in civil law codes.
Reservation -- (normally spoken of after a cession of sovereignty and proprietary ownership), the federal power to reserve land including proprietary title of ownership, and often including the exclusive or concurrent jurisdiction of federal enclave laws; Indian Reservations, Military Reservations, Embassy grounds; Guantanomo Bay, Cuba.
Safe-Conduct -- a document similar to a passport, issued by the same authority and for similar purposes, to persons residing or sojourning outside of the occupied areas, who desire to enter and remain within or pass through such areas. Also called a "laissez passer".
SFPT -- San Francisco Peace Treaty, also called Treaty of Peace with Japan, which came into force on April 28, 1952.
Signatories of SFPT -- Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Ceylon, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan , Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, the Republic of the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the Union of South Africa, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
Sovereignty -- (1) the supreme power of a political body, (2) supreme political or governmental authority, (3) the power of independent action in all internal and external relations, (4) one that is sovereign, especially an independent or autonomous state or nation. [Note: It is within a defined geographic area that the exclusive right to exercise supreme authority is exercised, and this defines the modern notion of a "sovereign state."]
Special Territorial Jurisdiction -- Guano Islands Act taken under terra nullius or discovery by US citizens; US Aircraft illegally taken by PLA; spaceships or satellites owned by US entities even if launched in China; federal enclaves or reservations; "enhancements" of federal ownership rights of ceded lands as taken for the defense of the USA by TRA and Article 4 of SFPT.
Sub-sovereign Foreign State Equivalents -- (1) "self-governing dominion," (2) "mandate territory," and (3) "trust territory." The UN Charter is the standard definition of trust territory which includes "administering authority" and "self-determination" rights in the organic concept. Self-governing dominion is the British practice of Canada and Australia. However, the USA doesn't allow self-governing dominions to have sovereign qualities while subjugated to the dominion of the USA. Only after independence, do they become Republics and then eligible for free-association. For Taiwan, "interim dominion" conveys with great precision the sense of "self-governing dominion" during its interim status cession under SFPT.
Taiwan Relations Act -- a domestic law of the United States, designed to maintain commercial, cultural, and other relations with the people on Taiwan on an unofficial basis, 22 USC 3301-3316. [Note: the TRA was passed in 1979, after the United States' recognition of the People's Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China.]
Taiwan Strait -- a channel between mainland China and the island of Taiwan, varying in width between 180 km to 131 km (112 miles to 81 miles). The Taiwan Strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the northeast.
Terra Nullius -- one of the recognized principles of international law for the official acquisition of territorial sovereignty. Discovery of (uninhabited) islands or lands and occupation thereof are the basic requirements of terra nullius, dating from the colonial era of the Imperialist Powers in discovering America or the Guano Islands. Commodore Perry discovered the "Formosan lands" in 1851 which were not even occupied by Chinese settlements, (being still much like that of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607).
Territorial Sea -- the waters adjacent to a coastal state and extending seaward up to a limit not to exceed 12 miles from its baselines in which that state exercises complete sovereignty with the exceptions of innocent passage and transit passage.
Territorial Sovereignty -- the right of a government to exclusively exercise its powers within a particular territory.
Treaty -- legally binding agreement between two or more states.
Treaty of Paris (US - Spain Peace Treaty) -- signed in 1898 after the American-Spanish War, ceding Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the USA, and ceding Cuba to USMG. For several years, these largely differing treaty cessions were officially left in a political limbo without any clearly specified political status or civil rights by the fact of their cession. Their final political status was later determined (or clarified) in the Insular Cases of the early 1900's, but outcomes of each cession were very different. Regardless, each cession was still endowed with basic civil rights until their final status was determined or were more permanently situated within the doctrine of unincorporated territory. The Taiwan cession is most reminiscent of the Cuban cession of under the US - Spain Peace Treaty for the purposes of Insular Law and the Laws of War.
Treaty of Shimonoseki -- signed in 1895 by Japan and China, ceding Chinese dominion of Formosa and the Pescadores to the Japanese. In 1871, Japan and China had had an agreement on the "unreclaimed" lands of Formosa by China in which the Japanese dropped their claims of terra nullius for the Chinese gold given in compensation for murders by Formosan islanders. Several ceded areas were "reoccupied" by China under later revisions of this treaty drafted by John Foster, the grandfather of John Foster Dulles, author of SFPT.
"Undefined" Civil Rights -- "fundamental rights" under the US Constitution which are applicable in unincorporated territories even without any action by the US Congress.
UCMJ -- Uniform Code of Military Justice, 50 USC 551-736.
Unincorporated Territory -- (1) an area over which the US Constitution has not been expressly and fully extended by the Congress within the meaning of Article IV, Section 3 of the US Constitution, (2) insular law term for interim cessions and their basic constitutional rights under peace treaty; nexus of international and domestic laws.
Universal Law -- law so fundamental or basic that it is binding upon all states whether they have individually consented to it or not.
Unorganized Territory -- insular law term for cession which is not organized into a commonwealth, with no local Constitution officially authorized by the supreme sovereign.
Usufruct -- (1) the right to the use and enjoyment of another's property and its profits, (2) the right to use and enjoy the profits and advantages of something belonging to another as long as the property is not damaged or altered in any way. [Reference: the Hague Regulations stipulate that "the occupying State shall be regarded only as administrator and usufructuary of public buildings, real estate, forests, and agricultural estates belonging to the hostile State, and situated in the occupied country. It must safeguard the capital of these properties, and administer them in accordance with the rules of usufruct." Hence, the occupying power does not have the right of sale, unqualified use, or expropriation of such property. Moreover, as administrator or usufructuary the occuping power should not exercise his rights in such a wasteful and negligent manner as seriously to impair the property's value.]
Usufructuary -- one who has the right and enjoyment of an usufruct.
Uti Possidetis -- a principle in international law that recognizes a peace treaty between parties as vesting each with the territory and property under its control unless otherwise stipulated. (Latin: uti possidetis, ita possideatis -- "as you possess, so may you continue to possess.") This principle is not applicable to a discussion of Taiwan's international legal status after WWII because (1) the Republic of China was not a party to the SFPT, in which Japan ceded Taiwan, (2) October 25, 1945, only marks the beginning of the military occupation of Taiwan, and the Republic of China (founded in 1912) had never held legal possession of "Formosa and the Pescadores" at any time before the coming into effect of the peace treaty. (3) Furthermore, Article 21 of the SFPT clearly stipulates the benefits to which "China" is entitled under the treaty, and "Formosa and the Pescadores" are not included. [Note: The principle of uti possidetis had its origin in the resolution of border disputes following the decolonization of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of Latin America.]
War -- a sustained struggle of a scale and duration that threatens the existence of the government of a state or an equivalent juridical person and that is waged between groups of forces that are armed, wear a distinctive insignia, and are subject to military discipline under a responsible command.
Writ of Mandamus -- a legal order of a superior court ordering the execution of its rulings to a lower level official whom is reluctant to do so.