| 释义 |
avulsion
n. A sudden and violent shift in the course of a river that leaves the old riverbed dry. This could be caused by such natural forces as floods, tidal waves, or hurricanes. The alteration of territory by this means does not affect the title to territory; thus new claims by a state that would appear to benefit from the rapid geological change would be disbarred. The classic illustration of this was in the Chamizal Arbitration (1911) 5 AJIL 782 concerning land boundary changes made by the changing course of the Rio Grande between the USA and Mexico. The USA claimed that the new tract had been formed by the process of slow erosion and accretion. Mexico contended that it had been formed by avulsion. By a convention of 1910 the controversy was submitted to arbitration and the Commission held that part of the tract was due to “slow and gradual erosion” (accretion) but that another part resulted from “the great flood of 1864” (avulsion) and should therefore be assigned to Mexico. |