IP: U.K. law prof says HavenCo may be beyond reach of English law

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2000 10:35:13 -0700
> To: politech () politechbot com
> From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
> Subject: FC: U.K. law prof says HavenCo may be beyond reach of English law
>
>
> [This is courtsey of HavenCo CEO Sean Hastings, who had earlier emailed me 
> to take issue with this post (http://www.politechbot.com/p-01272.html). 
> --Declan]
>
> ********
>
> From: "Sean Hastings" <sean () havenco com>
> To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com>
> Subject: FW: Daily Times
> Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2000 10:29:06 +0100
>
> http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/08/08/x-timlwtlwt01009.html
>
>    Tuesday August 8 2000
>    A tiny, man-made island is causing an international incident, says
>    Gary Slapper
>
>    How a law-less 'data haven' is using law to protect itself
>
>      When is a state not a state? When it is a playground on stilts in
>      30ft of water, some might say, looking out at Sealand, the world's
>      newest self-proclaimed state, off the Suffolk coast.
>
>      The Government has apparently allowed itself to be painted into a
>      corner over an intriguing issue of international law. A story that
>      began in an apparently risible way in September 1967, and was
>      nothing much more than a minor item of local news about a small
>      eccentric family, has metamorphosed into an international incident.
>
> [...]
>
>      The commonly accepted criteria among jurists for determining
>      whether an entity is a state are taken from the jus gentium - the
>      law of nations. This law is derived from the Institutes of
>      Justinian, the major treatise written by the command of the Roman
>      Emperor Justinian and published in AD 533. One thorny problem for
>      the Government is that according to the three major criteria of
>      statehood, Sealand does appear to have a good claim.
>
>      The requirements are: a national territory; a people coming
>      together as a nation; and a sovereign state authority. It does not
>      matter that it is only 932sq yd in size because there is no minimum
>      area legally articulated for something to be a state. Vatican City
>      is classified as a state even though it is minuscule. Neither is
>      there a requirement that the population rises above a certain
>      minimum. Nor is it an argument that the structure was created by
>      the Government as it was legally terra nullis - abandoned land -
>      when it was taken over.
>
>      Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of
>      States, signed in 1933, itemises the same criteria as the jus
>      gentium, plus the capacity to enter into relations with other
>      states. Sealand appears also to have satisfied this criterion. If
>      Sealand is an independent state, it could legitimately claim its
>      own coastal waters and regulate its own airspace. The Government is
>      also in difficulties over this because on two occasions it has
>      appeared to endorse the idea that Sealand is both beyond its
>      jurisdiction and has the status of a state.
>
> [...]