evidence: looks at the background to the Rockall dispute.It is a tiny, inhospitable, uninhabited granite island that juts out of the North Atlantic about 300km from Scotland and 423km from Ireland. [...] In 1972, Britain passed the Island of Rockall Act, formally declaring Rockall to be part of Scotland. This was on the eve of Britain joining the EEC so no doubt it was a pre-emptive strike against any diminution of territory that the common fisheries policy would entail. It was also the last act of territorial expansion of the British empire, which had spent the previous decade losing the bulk of its colonies. [...] Ireland has refused to recognise Britain’s claim to Rockall while also maintaining that ownership of the island is of no great importance as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea states that: "Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf."