Abstract
Disputes over islands are countless throughout History. States have always searched to extend their boundaries, and islands in particular have always been coveted as both a proliferous natural resources source and a means to gain more land and fishing area. This has been even more the case since 1982 with the signature of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which grants each nation 12 nautical miles of territorial water and 200 nautical miles of Exclusive Economic Zone along its coasts (special regulations apply for zones where the nearest land is closer than these distances).
This means that a country has full control of the exploitation of all natural resources included in the Exclusive Economic Zone. It is striking to see how many present and past day territorial issues are related to islands and who owns sovereignty over these islands. Examples of present day issues are the disputes over Cyprus, the Liancourt Rocks or the South Kuril Islands.
Although they are more than 17000 kilometers away one from the other, the Falkland and the Senkaku Islands have thus much in common: both are the subject of vivid international disputes that have been lasting for several decades and that impact greatly the relations between the antagonist countries. The United Kingdom has claimed sovereignty over the Falkland/Malvinas Islands since 1690, with the landing of Captain John Strong and the first settlement of English colonists.
