Archive Article: The Break Up Of Countries. 11 July 03
December 22, 2008

One of the most common themes in international politics relates to countries breaking up. I have just been reading a wonderful book that explains some of the international law principles involved.

The late Julie Dahlitz, a distinguished Australian international lawyer based in Geneva, edited a collection of conference documents on “Secession and International Law”. I helped organize the Sydney round of the conference series. Tragically, Julie passed away just as the book was being prepared for publication. The United Nations is to be congratulated for bringing the publishing project to its completion.

This is easily the most readable introduction to this horrifically complicated subject. There are no easy answers. This book provides an overview of the main difficulties.

The extent of the problem can be seen in the news headlines this week. Liberia (where the Americans are being pressured to send in forces), the Solomon Islands (where Australia is likely to do so) and Bougainville/ Papua New Guinea (where has Australia just withdrawn its force) are all examples of disputes that have secession as a common theme.

The entire inhabited world is divided into “countries”. International lawyers call them “nation-states”. The word “nation” means an homogenous group of people and “state” refers to the legal, political, administrative, military authority structure governing the “people”. The basic problem is that “nation” and “state” do not always neatly overlap. 80 per cent of the world’s borders were drawn up by Europeans. As they explored and conquered the world, so they drew up the boundaries and allocated people to fit their own map-making conveniences, rather than what the local people themselves may have wanted. The latter often had no say in the matter. For example, part of the problem in the Solomons is that some people do not want to be in the current national configuration. The book says: “The issue of secession arises whenever a significant proportion of the population of a given territory, being part of a State, expresses the wish by word or deed to become a sovereign State in itself or to join with and become part of another sovereign State”.

Julie Dahlitz organized the round of conferences because she wanted to deal with this issue that is so complicated that governments, non-governmental organizations and individuals prefer to overlook it. She, very daringly, wanted to force us to grapple with the international law principles in the hope that some answers may be found.

On the one hand, the international legal order is based on countries (or nation-states) living side by side in harmony. On the other hand, the Americans in World War I publicised the idea of “national self-determination” so that peoples in the old Austro-Hungarian empire could form their own countries. They created a momentum that runs on to this day (as Australian forces know only too well from Papua New Guinea/ Bougainville and may find out in the Solomons). These two basic principles can give rise to all sorts of tensions.

This book, the first an intended series, sets out the basic issues. The tragedy of Julie’s early death is that she is not now around to progress the topic to find some new international law principles.

Broadcast Friday 11th July 2003 on Radio 2GB’s “Brian Wilshire Programme” at 9pm