Nullius in verba and cited elsewhere. Nullius in verba The Royal Society website explains the motto thus: It is an expression of the determination of Fellows to withstand the domination of authority and to verify all statements by an appeal to facts determined by experiment. The phrase came from Horace's "Epistle" to his benefactor Maecenas, where he claims not to be devoted to any particular sect but is rather an eclectic by nature. These are the words, forming two hexameters in the original context: The minor planet known as 11059 Nulliusinverba in the asteroid belt is named after the expression. The phrase is
Terra nullius owner can be taken by the first taker. Michael Connor in his book "The Invention of Terra Nullius" takes an even more extreme view and argues that no one in the 19th century thought of Australia as being "terra nullius". He calls the concept a legal fiction, a straw man developed in the late 20th century: Few territories are currently considered "terra nullius". Bir Tawil is an example of a territory often claimed to be "terra nullius". Between Egypt and Sudan is the landlocked territory of Bir Tawil, which was created by a discrepancy between borders drawn in 1899 and