Ininternational relations, aconcession is a "synallagmatic act by which a State transfers the exercise of rights or functions proper to itself to a foreign private test which, in turn, participates in the performance of public functions and thus gains a privileged position vis-a-vis other private law subjects within the jurisdiction of the State concerned."[1] International concessions are not defined ininternational law and do not generally fall under it. Rather, they are governed by themunicipal law of theconceding state. There may, however, be a law of succession for such concessions, whereby the concession is continued even when the conceding state ceases to exist.[1]
In international law, alease is "an arrangement whereby territory isleased orpledged by the owner-State to another State. In such cases, sovereignty is, for the term of the lease, transferred to the lessee State."[2] The term "international lease" is sometimes also used to describe any leasing of property by one state to another or to a foreign national, but the normal leasing of property, as indiplomatic premises, is governed by municipal, not international, law. Sometimes the term "quasi-international lease" is used for leases between states when less than full sovereignty over a territory is involved. A true international lease, or "political" lease, involves the transfer of sovereignty for a specified period of time. Although they may have the same character ascessions, the terminability of such leases is now fully accepted.[2]
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base: leased fromCuba (which now disputes the lease) under 1903 and 1934 treaties in perpetuity; no civilian administration, only military command.
Pituffik Space Base: a concession granted to the United States rent free by Denmark in perpetuity pursuant to the1951 Greenland Defense Agreement which provides that the United States shall have exclusive jurisdiction over the area in question.[3]
The numerous cemeteries and monuments administered by theAmerican Battle Monuments Commission. These are located in Belgium, Cuba, France, Gibraltar, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Panama, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, South Korea, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom. The most popular sites among these are theNormandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France and the John F. Kennedy Memorial[5] atRunnymede,United Kingdom.
1848/54American concession in Shanghai (since 17 November 1843 a Treaty Port) established, until on 21 September 1863 (after the 1862 Proposal to make Shanghai an independent "free city" was rejected) an International Settlement in Shanghai was created by union of the American and British concessions (consummated December 1863).
TheGuatemalan parliament issued a decree on 4 May 1843 by virtue of which the district ofSanto Tomas was given "in perpetuity" to theCompagnie belge de colonisation, a private Belgian company under the protection ofKing Leopold I. Belgian colonizing efforts ceased after a few years, due to the lack of financial means and the harsh climate.
On 20 November 1846, a British concession inShanghai (in China) was established (after the 16 June 1842 – 29 August 1842British occupation of Shanghai, since 17 November 1843 a Treaty Port); on 27 November 1848, this concession was expanded, but on 21 September 1863 (after the 1862 proposal to make Shanghai an independent "free city" was rejected) an International Settlement in Shanghai was created by union of the American and British concessions (consummated in December 1863).
On 29 December 1877, representants ofNorth Borneo Chartered Company metAbdul Momin,Sultan of Brunei. Before, in January 1876,Gustav Overbeck purchased fromJoseph William Torrey for $15,000 the concessionary rights ofAmerican Trading Company of Borneo to territories in northern Borneo, conditional on the successful renewal of the concessions from local authorities. Overbeck was appointedMaharaja of Sabah andRajah of Gaya and Sandakan in a 29 December 1877 treaty withBrunei SultanAbdul Momin, who still claimed ownership of northern Borneo.[6] The Sultan agreed to make the concession for 15,000Spanish dollars. However, since it turned out that the Sultan of Brunei had already ceded some areas to theSultan of Sulu, further negotiations were needed. With the assistance ofWilliam Clark Cowie, a Scottish adventurer and friend of SultanJamal-ul Azam of Sulu, the Sultan signed a concession treaty on 22 January 1878 and received 5,000 Spanish dollars.[7]
TheBritish concession of Tianjin (Tientsin), in which the trade centred, was situated on the right bank of the river Peiho below the native city, occupying some 200 acres (0.81 km2). It was held on a lease in perpetuity granted by the Chinese government to the British Crown, which sublet plots to private owners in the same way as atHankou (Hankow). The local management was entrusted to a municipal council organized on lines similar to those at Shanghai.[8]
Following theFirst World War theFrench Republic grantedCanada perpetual use of a portion of land onVimy Ridge under the understanding that the Canadians were to use the land to establish a battlefield park and memorial. The park, known as theCanadian National Vimy Memorial, contains a monument to the fallen, a museum and extensive re-creations of the wartime trench system, preserved tunnels and cemeteries.
Between 1882 and 1884, theQing Empire obtained concessions inKorea atIncheon,Busan andWonsan. TheChinese concession of Incheon and those in Busan and Wonsan were occupied by Japan in 1894 after the outbreak of theFirst Sino-Japanese War. After China's defeat in that war, Korea (now with Japanese support) declared the unequal treaties with Qing China to be void, and unilaterally withdrew the extraterritoriality and other powers granted to China in respect of the concessions. The concessions were formally abolished in 1898.
TheFrench concession in Shanghai was established on 6 April 1849 (it had been aTreaty Port since 17 November 1843). On 17 July 1854 a Municipal Council established. The concession was relinquished byVichy France to a Japan-sponsored puppet government in China, and was formally returned to China by France in 1946.
Macau: around 1552–1553, the Portuguese obtained permission to establish a settlement as a reward for defeating pirates and to mediate in trade between China and Japan and between both nations and Europe; it was leased from the empire of China from 1670. The concession turned into a Portuguese colony in the mid-19th century. TheChinese government assumed sovereignty over Macau on 20 December 1999, ending 329 years of Portuguese colonial rule.
Nagasaki andDejima: In 1580,Ōmura Sumitada cedes jurisdiction over Nagasaki and Mogi to the PortugueseJesuits, but in 1588Toyotomi Hideyoshi exerts direct control over Nagasaki, Mogi, and Urakami from the Jesuits (after Hideyoshi banishedChristianmissionaries from Kyūshū, to exert greater control over theKirishitandaimyō).[11] Then, the Portuguese are interned on Dejima (Fourth National Isolation Edict) in 1636, but afterShimabara Rebellion, Portuguese ships are prohibited from entering Japan. Consequently, the Portuguese concessions are banished from Dejima and Japan.
one of the concessions ofHankou (Hankow; now part ofWuhan).
Hanko Peninsula, a peninsula near the Finnish capitalHelsinki, was leased for a period of 30 years by theSoviet Union from its northwestern neighbour—and former possession in personal union—Finland for use as anaval base in theBaltic Sea, near the entry of theGulf of Finland, under the Moscow Peace Treaty that ended theWinter War on 6 March 1940; during theContinuation War, Soviet troops were forced to evacuate Hanko in early December 1941, and the USSR formally renounced the lease—early given the original term until 1970—in the Paris peace treaty of 1947. The role of theHanko naval base was replaced byPorkkalanniemi another Finnish peninsula, a bit farther east at the Gulf of Finland, in the armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union of 19 September 1944; thePorkkala naval base was returned to Finland in January 1956. In both cases, the Soviets limited themselves to a military command, without any civilian administration.
Khmeimim Air Base inSyria is leased to the Russian government for a period of 49 years, with the Russian government having extraterritorial jurisdiction over the air base and its personnel.[12][13]
Since 2015 after the Donbas and Crimea invasion Russia agreed to lease 300,000 hectares to China for 50 years for $449 million US dollars. The lease can be extended in 2018 if the first stage from 2015 to 2018 was successful. Russia needed the Chinese funds to replace a shortfall caused byinternational sanctions.[14][15] The Transbaikal region borders with China, and the lease agreement stirred up a maelstrom of controversy and anxiety in Russia.[16] China will send a massive influx of Chinese workers to settle and work in the area.[17]
On 22 July 1878, Spanish forces operating from thePhilippines forced the Sultan of Sulu to surrender in theSpanish–Moro conflict, the Sultan of Sulu relinquished the sovereign rights over all his possessions in favour of SpainSuzerainty, based on the "Bases of Peace and Capitulation" signed by the Sultan of Sulu and thecrown of Spain inJolo on 22 July 1878, and permitted them to set up a small garrison on Siasi Island and in the town of Jolo.[18] These areas were only partially controlled by the Spanish, and their power was limited to only military stations and garrisons and pockets of civilian settlements. Causing Overbeck to lose his title and territory in the north-eastern areas just gained from the Sultan to theBritish Borneo. In 1885,Great Britain,Germany andSpain signed theMadrid Protocol to cement Spanish influence over the islands of the Philippines. In the same agreement, Spain relinquished all claim to North Borneo, which had belonged to the sultanate in the past, to the British government. Dividing Borneo in a Spanish and a British concession of theSultanate of Sulu.[19]
21 September 1863 (after the 1862 Proposal to make Shanghai an independent "free city" was rejected) anInternational Settlement in Shanghai was created by union of the American and British concessions (consummated December 1863); in 1896 the concession was expanded. On 7 July 1927, a Chinese city government of Greater Shanghai was formally established. Its internationality can be seen in the flag of the Ministry of Industry and Trade-Shanghai: Flags of theAustria-Hungary,Denmark,Third Republic of France,Kingdom of Italy,Netherlands,German Empire,United Kingdom of Sweden-Norway,Kingdom of Portugal,Russian Empire,Kingdom of Spain,United Kingdom andUnited States of America.Belgium,Peru,Mexico,Japan andSwitzerland were also part of the international concession. The ROC government refused to grant treaty rights to new countries after World War I, such as Germany, Austria and Hungary (formerly the Austro-Hungarian and German Empire, whose privileges were abolished after 1918),Poland,Czechoslovakia,Yugoslavia, theBaltic States, andFinland. Russia waived its rights for Soviet political expediency. China declared that Belgium had lost its rights in 1927.[21] In January/February 1931, the Japanese occupied theHongkou District (Hongkew), and on 9 November 1937 the Chinese city of Shanghai, but only on 8 December 1941 would Japanese troops occupy the International Settlement (but not the French concession); it was dissolved by Japan in 1942. In February 1943 the settlement is officially abolished by the U.S. and Britain; in September 1945, the last territory is restored to China.
Tangier International Zone: Under the Paris Convention, Tangier was made a neutral zone under joint administration by the participating countries (Spain, France and UK).[23] The Paris Convention was proposed for ratification to the other powers that were party to theAlgeciras Conference - exceptGermany,Austria andHungary, disempowered by the peace treaties (respectively ofVersailles,Saint-Germain andTrianon), and theSoviet Union, then estranged from the international system.[24] Italy's demand to join the international framework on a par with the signatories of the Paris Convention was supported by Spain from 1926, then by the UK, and a new conference eventually started in Paris in March 1928.[25] Then,Portugal,Belgium, theNetherlands, andItaly joined the city government. Then, afterWorld War II and theSpanish occupation of Tangier, a quadripartite conference (France,Soviet Union,UK andUnited States) met in Paris in August 1945, concluding a temporary Anglo-French Agreement of 31 August 1945, in which the two powers made arrangements for the re-establishment of the Zone's international institutional framework, inviting the United States and the Soviet Union to join it, passing both of them to be present in the city government.[26]
^William C. Johnstone, "International Relations: The Status of Foreign Concessions and Settlements in the Treaty Ports of China",The American Political Science Review, no 5, Oct. 1937, p. 942.
^Stuart, Graham Henry (1955) [1931].The international city of Tangier. Stanford books in world politics (en inglés) (2da edición). Redwood City, Estados Unidos: Stanford University Press.OCLC 59027016.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Tientsin".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 963.