Gibraltar, the Egalitarian Shared Sovereignty, the
financial system, government and law
Last
time, we introduced the EGALITARIAN SHARED SOVEREIGNTY. Today, we present some
key elements related to Gibraltar.
Post
35: Territorial disputes: Gibraltar (Part 5)
From our
previous posts, we have learnt so far that some of the main concerns related to
Gibraltar are:
Autarchy and financial system
Finance
in the context of a sovereign conflict means the monetary policy, market
system, taxation system and way of dealing with debts (internal or
international) of a given State.
Autarchy is the economic independence a State
(in this case, a non-sovereign party, Gibraltar) must have in relation to other
States; the ability a State has to balance its gains and losses without
external aid.
The
fact that a population is not able to meet its needs and has to appeal to its
peers to achieve a certain balance in its account may militate against its
sovereignty. It is not that autarchy is a necessary condition for a State to be
sovereign. However, it is as a desirable feature in order to avoid any possible
interference in internal affairs.
In the particular case of sovereignty
disputes, as in any conflict in which there are two sovereign States, it is
more than possible that they do not have the same strengths in terms of their
financial system. Gibraltar as a TERRITORIAL DISPUTE offers a clear example.
It
is often the case sovereign States borrow large amounts of money. Even central
States do so for very different reasons (e.g. to cover overdrafts in their
expenses, to stimulate international trade, to soften bilateral relations).
Therefore, the result is usually an unbalanced relationship that may result in
different relative positions in any bargaining situation.
In
the particular case of Gibraltar, it is easy to identify three parties with
different levels of welfare. Although all of them have been affected by the
recent worldwide financial crisis, the Spanish economy has evidently
deteriorated.
With Brexit, the United Kingdom’s future situation remains
unknown. The financial system is a feature that implies much controversy, and
so it will be analyzed through the proposed model.
Therein, what financial
system should Gibraltar have?
Government and law
The
globe offers a wide spectrum of examples in which although the form of
government differs, in all cases they are still States. There is no
controversial feature at this point.
In the particular context of this TERRITORIAL
DISPUTE (Gibraltar), this sub-element does not offer controversy either.
However, other sub-elements part of any government may not be so straightforward.
If
sovereignty is not shared, then it is clear who elects representatives and
chooses them (the inhabitants if the territory is independent or the
inhabitants as part of a sovereign State).
What happens when sovereignty is
shared? Then, there are two different issues:
a) representatives and
administration; and
b) law.
It follows from this that the two most challenging practical issues raised by shared sovereignty in
relation to government seem to be:
- What sort of governmental arrangements shared sovereignty requires?; and
- How governmental authority can be shared and yet be workable?
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: we combine both (the EGALITARIAN SHARED SOVEREIGNTY and the elements
mentioned above) to offer a potential ideal solution
Monday 25th November 2019
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez
Twitter: @London1701
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