Kake

This is the story of how a powerful nation annexed an island in the north Atlantic.

The powerful nation was the United Kingdom, and the year was 1955.

The annexation was ordered by the Queen:

On arrival at […]  you will effect a landing and hoist the Union flag on whatever spot appears most suitable or practicable and you will then take possession of the island on our behalf.

A landing was duly effected, and a Union flag duly hoisted by a Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander.

That Lieutenant Commander declared:

In the name of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, I hereby take possession of this Island of […]

A plaque was placed on the island:

BY AUTHORITY OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH THE SECOND, BY THE GRACE OF GOD OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND AND OF HER OTHER REALMS AND TERRITORIES, QUEEN, HEAD OF THE COMMONWEALTH, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, ETC. ETC. ETC. AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH HER MAJESTY’S INSTRUCTIONS DATED 14. 9. 55. A LANDING WAS EFFECTED ON THIS DAY UPON THE ISLAND OF […] FROM H.M.S. VIDAL.

THE UNION FLAG WAS HOISTED AND POSSESSION OF THE ISLAND WAS TAKEN IN THE NAME OF HER MAJESTY. [Signed] R H Connell, CAPTAIN, H.M.S. VIDAL, 18 SEPTEMBER 1955

The possession taken of this island “in the name of Her Majesty” has been described as the last territorial expansion of the British Empire.

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So what was this Atlantic island that the Queen ordered to be possessed and which was then taken with all this pomp and circumstance?

The island – more an islet really – was Rockall.

Rockall.

Rockall.

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One may think that a small uninhabitable granite island – sorry, islet – really was not worth all this elaborate ceremony.

One may think that “THE UNION FLAG WAS HOISTED AND POSSESSION OF THE ISLAND WAS TAKEN IN THE NAME OF HER MAJESTY” and so on was rather absurd.

Some at the time certainly thought so.

Here are the immortal Flanders and Swan:

The fleet set sail for Rockall,
Rockall,
Rockall,
To free the isle of Rockall,
From fear of foreign foe.
We sped across the planet,
To find this lump of granite,
One rather startled Gannet;
In fact, we found Rockall.

So, praise the brave Bell-bottoms,
Bottoms,
Bottoms,
Who saw Britannia’s Peril,
And answered to her call,
Though we’re thrown out of Malta,
Though Spain should take Gibraltar,
Why should we flinch or falter,
When England’s got Rockall.

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The story then gets even more absurd – at least from a constitutional perspective.

For the United Kingdom government then had to decide how to legally treat this acquisition.

And some clever person decided that this islet midway between Iceland and Ireland would be…

…part of Scotland.

Not only would it be treated as part of Scotland, it would be treated as if there was nothing distinctive about it at all.

Just another part of Scotland.

Here is the splendid Island of Rockall Act 1972:

The granite islet, by the legal magic of primary legislation, “shall form part of the District of Harris in the County of Inverness, and the law of Scotland shall apply accordingly.”

Later, by the mundane paragraph 202 of schedule 27 to the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 Rockall was shunted from Harris to form part the Western Isles.

It was as if it were an utterly normal local government boundary reorganisation.

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The effect of this legal conjuring is that, from a legal perspective, Rockall is supposedly as much of the United Kingdom as any other Scottish island.

When Greenpeace landed there for a protest in 1997, a Foreign Office spokesperson is quoted as saying:

Rockall is British territory. It is part of Scotland and anyone is free to go there and can stay as long as they please.

And a spokesperson for the Western Isles council said:

There is no obvious reason why we would feel obliged to interfere in what is happening. We have no powers to forcibly remove them and they do have rights to be there

Glorious stuff.

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Behind all this legal and constitutional silliness, however, was some hard policy seriousness.

In 2012 the Foreign Office said:

The UK claims a 12 nautical mile territorial sea around Rockall, which merges with a 200 nautical mile Extended Fishery Zone, 200 nm continental shelf and other zones, draw from baselines on the west coast of the Western Islands, off the mainland coast of Scotland.

And so the United Kingdom insists on licences for Irish fishers and blocks those without a licence:

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And of course, it is not just fish.

There is the question of oil:

In 2009 the United Kingdom put in a submission to the United Nations for what one news report described as “thousands of square miles of the seabed around the Atlantic outcrop of Rockall”.

This claim is not accepted by Ireland or Iceland.

And against the United Kingdom on this is the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which provides (emphasis added):

Article 121

Regime of islands

1. An island is a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide.

2. Except as provided for in paragraph 3, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf of an island are determined in accordance with the provisions of this Convention applicable to other land territory.

3. Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.

As it stands, the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf still has not made a final determination on the United Kingdom’s submission.

Like Rockall itself, the United Kingdom’s formal claim to oil rights seems to be in the middle of nowhere.

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Another north Atlantic island, and the claim of a powerful nation, has been in the news recently.

Perhaps one way of resolving President Trump’s claim to Greenland would be to give him Rockall instead.

And he can take possession of it in, say, the same way Napoleon took possession of St Helena.

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Why should we flinch or falter,
When Trump has got Rockall.

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