Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty PDF
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MICRONATIONS AND THE SEARCH FOR SOVEREIGNTY Politicaldisagreementisafactoflife.Itcanpromptpeopletostandfor publicofficeandagitateforpoliticalchange.Otherstakeadifferentroute; theystarttheirownnation.MicronationsandtheSearchforSovereigntyis the first comprehensive examination of the phenomenon of people purporting to secede and create their own country. It analyses why micronations are not states for the purposes of international law, considers the factors that motivate individuals to separate and found their own nation, examines the legal justifications that they offer and explores the responses of recognised sovereign states. In doing so, this book develops a rich body of material through which to reflect on conventional understandings of statehood, sovereignty and legitimate authority. Authored in a lively and accessible style, Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty will be valuable reading for scholars and generalaudiences. harryhobbsisaSeniorLecturerintheFacultyofLawattheUniversity ofTechnologySydney.DrHobbs’recentscholarshiphasexploredideasof sovereigntythroughthelensofIndigenouspeoples’rights,andheisco- ChairoftheAmericanSocietyofInternationalLawRightsofIndigenous PeoplesInterestGroup. georgewilliamsaoisaDeputyVice-Chancellor,theAnthonyMason Professor and a Scientia Professor at UNSW Sydney. He has served as DeanofUNSWLawandheldanAustralianResearchCouncilLaureate Fellowship.Hehaswrittenwidelyonconstitutionallawandhasappeared as a barrister in the High Court of Australia on freedom of speech, freedomfromracialdiscriminationandtheruleoflaw. Published online by Cambridge University Press cambridge studies in constitutional law Theaimofthisseriesistoproduceleadingmonographsinconstitutional law.Allareasofconstitutionallawandpubliclawfallwithintheambitof theseries,includinghumanrightsandcivillibertieslaw,administrative law,aswellasconstitutionaltheoryandthehistoryofconstitutionallaw. Awidevarietyofscholarlyapproachesisencouraged,withthegoverning criterion being simply that the work is of interest to an international audience. Thus, works concerned with only one jurisdiction will be includedintheseriesasappropriate,while,atthesametime,theseries will include works which are explicitly comparative or theoretical – or both. The series editors likewise welcome proposals that work at the intersectionofconstitutionalandinternationallaw,orthatseektobridge thegapsbetweencivillawsystems,theUS,andthecommonlawjurisdic- tionsoftheCommonwealth. SeriesEditors DavidDyzenhaus ProfessorofLawandPhilosophy,UniversityofToronto,Canada ThomasPoole ProfessorofLaw,LondonSchoolofEconomicsandPoliticalScience EditorialAdvisoryBoard T.R.S.Allan,Cambridge,UK DamianChalmers,LSE,UK SujitChoudhry,Berkeley,USA MonicaClaes,Maastricht,Netherlands DavidCole,Georgetown,USA K.D.Ewing,King’sCollegeLondon,UK DavidFeldman,Cambridge,UK CoraHoexter,Witwatersrand,SouthAfrica ChristophMoellers,Humboldt,Germany AdrienneStone,Melbourne,Australia AdamTomkins,Glasgow,UK AdrianVermeule,Harvard,USA BooksintheSeries FundamentalRightsandtheLegalObligationsofBusinessDavidBilchitz CourtingConstitutionalism:ThePoliticsofPublicLawandJudicialReview inPakistanMoeenCheema RulingbyCheating:GovernanceinIlliberalDemocracyAndrásSajó LocalMeaningsofProportionalityAfroditiMarketou Property Rights and Social Justice: Progressive Property in Action RachaelWalsh Published online by Cambridge University Press CarlSchmitt’sEarlyLegal-TheoreticalWritings:StatuteandJudgmentand theValueoftheStateandtheSignificanceoftheIndividualLarsVinxand SamuelGarrettZeitlin RemediesforHumanRightsViolations:ATwo-TrackApproachtoSupra- nationalandNationalLawKentRoach Europe’s Second Constitution: Crisis, Courts and Community Markus W.Gehring A.V.DiceyandtheCommonLawConstitutionalTradition:ALegalTurn ofMindMarkD.Walters Administrative Competence: Reimagining Administrative Law ElizabethFisherandSidneyA.Shapiro LegalSabotage:ErnstFraenkelinHitler’sGermanyDouglasMorris ProportionalityinAction:ComparativeandEmpiricalPerspectivesonthe Judicial Practice Edited by Mordechai Kremnitzer, Tayla Steiner and AndrejLang Constitutional Dialogue: Democracy, Rights, Institutions Edited by GeoffreySigalet,GrégoireWebberandRosalindDixon The Veiled Sceptre: Reserve Powers of Heads of State in Westminster SystemsAnneTwomey Vigilance and Restraint in the Common Law of Judicial Review DeanKnight TheAlchemists:QuestioningOurFaithinCourtsasDemocracy-Builders TomGeraldDaly Australia’sConstitutionafterWhitlamBrendanLim BuildingtheConstitution:ThePracticeofConstitutionalInterpretationin Post-ApartheidSouthAfricaJamesFowkes DimensionsofDignity:TheTheoryandPracticeofModernConstitutional LawJacobWeinrib ReasonofState:Law,Prerogative,EmpireThomasPoole BillsofRightsintheCommonLawRobertLeckey TheGuardianoftheConstitution:HansKelsenandCarlSchmittonthe LimitsofConstitutionalLawTranslatedbyLarsVinx,withanintroduc- tionandnotesbyLarsVinx Parliamentary Bills of Rights: The Experiences of New Zealand and the UnitedKingdomJanetL.HiebertandJamesB.Kelly Lawyering for the Rule of Law: Government Lawyers and the Rise of JudicialPowerinIsraelYoavDotan Balancing Constitutional Rights: The Origins and Meanings of Postwar LegalDiscourseJaccoBomhoff Judges on Trial: The Independence and Accountability of the English JudiciaryShimonShetreetandSophieTurenne Published online by Cambridge University Press Proportionality and Constitutional Culture Moshe Cohen-Eliya and IddoPorat The Politics of Principle: The First South African Constitutional Court, 1995–2005TheunisRoux TheNewCommonwealthModelofConstitutionalism:TheoryandPractice StephenGardbaum SearchingfortheStateinBritishLegalThought:CompetingConceptionsof thePublicSphereJanetMcLean JudgingSocialRightsJeffKing Proportionality: Constitutional Rights and Their Limitations AharonBarak ParliamentarySovereignty:ContemporaryDebatesJeffreyGoldsworthy Published online by Cambridge University Press M I C R O N A T I O N S A N D T H E S E A R C H F O R S O V E R E I G N T Y HARRY HOBBS UniversityofTechnologySydney GEORGE WILLIAMS UniversityofNewSouthWales Published online by Cambridge University Press UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia 314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre, NewDelhi–110025,India 103PenangRoad,#05–06/07,VisioncrestCommercial,Singapore238467 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781009150125 DOI:10.1017/9781009150132 ©HarryHobbsandGeorgeWilliams2022 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2022 AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. ISBN978-1-009-15012-5Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Published online by Cambridge University Press CONTENTS Preface pageix 1 PrinceLeonardPreparesforWar 1 2 StatehoodandMicronations 20 3 Motivations 82 4 PerformingSovereignty 126 5 StateResponses 162 6 TheFutureofMicronationalism 201 Appendix:ListofMicronationsDiscussed 220 Index 236 vii Published online by Cambridge University Press Published online by Cambridge University Press PREFACE People across the world have sought to secede and establish their own independent micronation. Their motivations for doing so can reflect their personal commitments and eccentricities and are as diverse as the nationstheyseektocreate.Secessionmightbeseenastheonlypossible courseofactiontoresolvealong-runningdisputewiththelocalcouncil or as a final act of defiance after decades of frustration with regulation andgovernmentbureaucracy.Establishinganewcountrymightalsobe designed to promote tourism to a region, to create an art project, to parodytheworkingsofthestateoreventodefraudunsuspectingpeople. Micronationshavebeenfoundedaroundtheglobefortheseandother reasons.Onceestablished,theyseektoasserttheirclaimstosovereignty in a myriad of ways. They issue coins, print stamps, compose national anthems,investthemselveswithroyaltitlesandsometimesevendeclare waronrecognisedstates.RoyBates–ortousehisfulltitle,PrinceRoyof Sealand–whogracesourcoverfromhisPrincipalityintheNorthSea,is justoneofthemanymicronationalistswhohastakensuchsteps. Micronations are a subject of fascination for many people, and regu- larlyattractworldwideattention.Thereissomethinginherentlyinterest- ingabouttheideathatanyoneofuscouldbreakawaytoformourown nation,completewithroyaltitlesandthetrappingsofarealstate.Despite this, the phenomenon has been almost completely ignored by legal scholars and political scientists. This reflects a view that micronations aremoresuitedtohumourthanseriousstudy.Afterall,theprospectthat an individual or small band of people could separate from a recognised stateandestablishtheirownlegallyrecognisednationisfanciful. We have written this book because there is more to this story. By dressing in the language of sovereignty, micronations challenge under- standingsofandapproachestointernationallegalpersonality.Theyalso catalyselargerquestionsaboutthenatureofstatehood,sovereigntyand legitimate authority. The creativity and persistent attempts of microna- tions to find cracks in the law to justify their existence also raise ix https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009150132.001 Published online by Cambridge University Press x preface importantlegalandpoliticalquestions.Cantheproponentsofseastead- ing create a viable state by constructing floating structures on the high seas outside of national jurisdiction? How do states respond to these potentialchallengers?Doesstateacquiescencetothecontinuedexistence ofamicronationhaveanylegaleffect?Couldamicronationeverbecome a state? If not, what value do micronationalists see in statehood? These are some of the questions that micronations pose. They are the sorts of issuethatmotivatedustowritethisbooktoprovidethefirstcomprehen- sivetreatmentofmicronationsfromalegalandpoliticalvantagepoint. Many peoplehave helped to shape thisbook. Wethank colleaguesat the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney and the Faculty of Law and Justice at the University of New South Wales, who offered helpful comments on draft papers. In particular, we thank Katherine Biber, Sara Dehm, Rosalind Dixon, Kun Fan, Fleur Johns, Zsofia Korosy, David Leary, Lucas Lixinski, Jane McAdam, Nicola McGarrity, Brian Opeskin, Prue Vines, Genevieve Wilkinson and Stephen Young. We also thank Tom Randall from Cambridge University Press for his enthusiasm for this project and Priyanka Durai forherexcellentworkonthemanuscript. Harry also thanks Annabel Johnson for her patience as he excitedly recounted the exploits of micronationalists on long walks together, as wellashisparents,KarinaandNeil,andsister,Georgia,whoencouraged his love of world maps and flags. George thanks Emma Armson, and theirchildrenEdwardandEleanor,whoseattemptsatindependenceand ruleoftheirhouseholdaugurswellfortheirfutureasmicronationalists. Finally, this book could not have been written without the drive and energyofthosemanypeople–someofwhomwediscuss–whomadethe decisiontothrowofftheshacklesoftheoldandcreatetheirowncountry. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009150132.001 Published online by Cambridge University Press
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