The
Falkland/Malvinas Islands TERRITORIAL DISPUTE has all the elements for the type
of conflict this series discusses, namely two sovereign States (Argentina and
the United Kingdom) and a non-sovereign third territory (Falkland/Malvinas
Islands). Indeed, it has features that are often the main cause of controversy
in sovereignty conflicts. A very brief historical account will put this into
context.
There
is doubt about who first sighted the islands and about the first landing
(Ferdinand Magellan and/or Amerigo Vespucci or the English sea captain John
Davis) in the 1500s. British and Spanish settlements appear afterwards.
Argentina declared its independence from Spain (1816) and then claimed rights
over the islands as they were part of the region previously under Spanish
dominion (1829).
The
United Kingdom and Argentina have had continuous presence and/or claimed
exclusive sovereign rights over the islands since then, both bilaterally and
internationally with a climax in 1982 with a war between the two.
According
to the 2012 census the islands had 2841 inhabitants. Most of them (59%) considered
themselves “Falkland Islanders” and a large percentage identified themselves as
British (29%). Bilateral relations have been re-established after the war.
The
sovereignty dispute over the islands continues nowadays. Commerce and trade
between the islands and Argentina have been an issue. Because of the lack of
negotiations, Argentina has threatened an economic blockade, an idea supported
by other Latin-American States with visible immediate negative results for the
islanders.
In March 2013, the Falkland/Malvinas Islanders voted in a referendum
whether they wanted (or not) to remain as British Overseas Territory. By a
large majority (99.8%) they made clear their wishes to remain British.
To
the reader, following two of our previous posts of this series about
TERRITORIAL DISPUTES:
- What are the issues at stake in this a territorial dispute?
- Which remedy could be applied to solve this particular territorial dispute?
For
reference to these questions see:
POST
9: Territorial disputes: issues at stake
POST
10: Territorial disputes: remedies
NOTE:
This post is based on Jorge Emilio Núñez, “Territorial Disputes and State
Sovereignty: International Law and Politics,” London and New York: Routledge,
Taylor and Francis Group, 2020 (forthcoming)
Previous
published research monograph about territorial disputes and sovereignty by the
author, Jorge Emilio Núñez, “Sovereignty Conflicts and International Law and
Politics: A Distributive Justice Issue,” London and New York: Routledge, Taylor
and Francis Group, 2017.
NEXT
POST: The Falkland/Malvinas Islands, Argentina and the United Kingdom
Monday 14th October 2019
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez
Twitter: @London1701
No comments:
Post a Comment