Hawaiian Territory and the Law of Occupation

Territorial sovereignty is the independent right of a State to carry out its activities over a territory that has been internationally recognized as belonging to a State. Since the occupation of the Hawaiian Islands by the United States on August 12, 1898, the laws of occupation apply to Hawaiian territory and where the Hawaiian Kingdom exercised its right of territorial sovereignty, the United States would temporarily exercise the Hawaiian right within the limitations imposed by the 1893 Lili`uokalani assignment and the Restoration Agreement, being international compacts, the 1907 Hague Convention, IV, and the 1949 Geneva Convention, IV, and U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10. §6 of the Hawaiian Civil Code states:

“The laws are obligatory upon all persons, whether subjects of this kingdom, or citizens or subjects of any foreign State, while within the limits of this kingdom, except so far as exception is made by the laws of nations in respect to Ambassadors or others.  The property of all such persons, while such property is within the territorial jurisdiction of this kingdom, is also subject to the laws.”

The Islands constituting the defined territory of the Hawaiian Kingdom that was internationally recognized in 1893, together with its territorial seas whereby the channels between adjacent Islands are contiguous, its exclusive economic zone of two hundred miles, and its air space, include:

Island:                   Location:                               Square Miles/Acreage:

Hawai‘i                 19º 30′ N 155º 30′ W             4,028.2 / 2,578,048
Maui                      20º 45′ N 156º 20′ W             727.3 / 465,472
O‘ahu                    21º 30′ N 158º 00′ W             597.1 / 382,144
Kaua‘i                   22º 03′ N 159º 30′ W             552.3 / 353,472
Molokai                 21º 08′ N 157º 00′ W             260.0 / 166,400
Lana‘i                    20º 50′ N 156º 55′ W             140.6 / 89,984
Ni‘ihau                  21º 55′ N 160º 10′ W             69.5 / 44,480
Kaho‘olawe           20º 33′ N 156º 35′ W             44.6 / 28,544
Nihoa                    23º 06′ N 161º 58′ W             0.3 / 192
Molokini               20º 38′ N 156º 30′ W             0.04 / 25.6
Lehua                    22º 01′ N 160º 06′ W             0.4 / 256
Ka‘ula                   21º 40′ N 160º 32′ W             0.2 / 128
Laysan                   25º 50′ N 171º 50′ W             1.6 / 1,024
Lisiansky               26º 02′ N 174º 00′ W             0.6 / 384
Palmyra                 05º 52′ N 162º 05′ W             4.6 / 2,944
Ocean                    28º 25′ N 178º 25′ W             0.4 / 256

TOTAL:                   6,427.74 (square miles) / 4,113,753.6 (acres)

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