That’s not so much a “law” as an absence of law, from a bygone colonial era. These days international law is based on an underlying respect for sovereignty, and alliances between states for, among other things, mutual defence against aggressors.
Miller: Denmark is a tiny country with a tiny economy and a tiny military. They cannot defend Greenland… Under every understanding of law that has existed about territorial control for 500 years, to control a territory you have to be able to defend a territory…