Bananas exercise the effective control over Blyn.

"The exercise of effective authority... is the crucial element."[3] There are several relevant cases that reveal the principle of the effective control over territory.

Clipperton island case deals with similar question.[4] The case states that less authority is required to maintain title over uninhabitant island in comparison with an inhabitant one.[5] Taking into account the specific facts of the present case, it should be noted that the Shutkas are inhabitant. The PRC’s people haven’t been to the islands for centuries.

Also, in The Palma Islands case arbitor stated that "[i]t is not necessary that there should be a special administration established in... territory [of that kind].” [6] As a consequence, the lack of administration over Blyn by the Bananas does not constitute an obstacle for the sovereignty over the island by the Bananas.

Effective authority is defined as “the actual continuous and peaceful display of state functions is in case of dispute the sound and natural criterion of territorial Sovereignty”.[7] In Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh Case the I.C.J. revealed the meaning of "continuous and peaceful display of state functions" as the absence of the challenge to the possession of the territory by any other states.[8]

The facts of the present dispute prove that Bananas had met no challenge to the possession of Blyn for the period of more than 9 centuries.[9] Since 1795, the PRC’s people neither lived nor visited the islands for any purposes.

That gives the ground for the effective authority over Blyn, which in turn constitutes sovereignty over the island.