Artificial Libertarian Island Countries?

Well considering the guy only put up $1.25 million for the project, I don't think he's getting himself a floating city block, much less something the size of a city. He and his 12 closest friends might be able to fit, but not much else for that investment.

 

Technically, what jurisdiction is a ship under in international waters? It strikes me as a somewhat similar situation. Could a ship declare itself independent?

 

This has been tried once before, with disastrous results.

They called it "Rapture."

 

It would never work as it would be called "racist".

 

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea answers to all the legal questions about this.

"Article87

Freedom of the high seas

1. The high seas are open to all States, whether coastal or land-locked. Freedom of the high seas is exercised under the conditions laid down by this Convention and by other rules of international law. It comprises, inter alia, both for coastal and land-locked States:

(d) freedom to construct artificial islands and other installations permitted under international law, subject to Part VI;


"Article60

Artificial islands, installations and structures in the exclusive economic zone

1. In the exclusive economic zone, the coastal State shall have the exclusive right to construct and to authorize and regulate the construction, operation and use of:

(a) artificial islands;

2. The coastal State shall have exclusive jurisdiction over such artificial islands, installations and structures, including jurisdiction with regard to customs, fiscal, health, safety and immigration laws and regulations.

7. Artificial islands, installations and structures and the safety zones around them may not be established where interference may be caused to the use of recognized sea lanes essential to international navigation.

8. Artificial islands, installations and structures do not possess the status of islands. They have no territorial sea of their own, and their presence does not affect the delimitation of the territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone or the continental shelf."

"Article89

Invalidity of claims of sovereignty over the high seas

No State may validly purport to subject any part of the high seas to its sovereignty."

So the answer is that artificial islands can be constructed only in the exclusive economic zones and they are subjected to the exclusive juristiction of the coastal states.

"Article92

Status of ships

1. Ships shall sail under the flag of one State only and, save in exceptional cases expressly provided for in international treaties or in this Convention, shall be subject to its exclusive jurisdiction on the high seas. A ship may not change its flag during a voyage or while in a port of call, save in the case of a real transfer of ownership or change of registry.

2. A ship which sails under the flags of two or more States, using them according to convenience, may not claim any of the nationalities in question with respect to any other State, and may be assimilated to a ship without nationality."



"Article110

Right of visit

1. Except where acts of interference derive from powers conferred by treaty, a warship which encounters on the high seas a foreign ship, other than a ship entitled to complete immunity in accordance with articles 95 and 96, is not justified in boarding it unless there is reasonable ground for suspecting that:

(a) the ship is engaged in piracy;

(b) the ship is engaged in the slave trade;

(c) the ship is engaged in unauthorized broadcasting and the flag State of the warship has jurisdiction under article 109;

(d) the ship is without nationality; or

(e) though flying a foreign flag or refusing to show its flag, the ship is, in reality, of the same nationality as the warship."

 

Indeedy. But when I read that article a few days ago, that was immediately what I thought of. Billionaire industrialists create a libertarian paradise city in the middle of the ocean, far from the slaver's yoke of government intrusion...

I think I see an angel, Mr. Bubbles.

 

Which, if it ever happened (hint: it won't get far) would do what, exactly? I didn't really get the vibe the people involved would start running around in horror.

 

No building codes on an oil platform at sea is an experiment in Darwinism.

 

Anyone remember "The Man With the Golden Gun"? Scaramanga bought a small island off the Chinese. What if someone went one step further?

What if someone bought a tiny island from a larger country, convinced a large number of people to move there, and then declared the island a new country? Would that even be possible under UN law? How many people would he need?

 

Someone has already tried to do it and three years after the declaration of independence, he is still the only citizen of Crown Dependency of Forvik.

 

I think I agree with this to great extent.

Libertarians seem to have this theory in their head and want a shot at putting it into practice. Never mind that it appears to have at least some flaws when dealing with economics, security, emergencies, global warming, and so on.

But when something goes wrong it must be the government's fault. If the Great Depression involved the private sector falling in on itself that must somehow be the government's fault.

Now a lot of libertarians are intelligent people and since they figure most people with an ounce of power are somehow corrupt some are great people to talk to if you want to know what corrupt things are going on.

Only problem with this is that some are full fledged conspiracy mongers and sometimes the conspiracy theories are wrong. Granted, plenty of shady things can and do happen in real life, but just because someone says there is a conspiracy doesn't make it so.

Or, is it possible some Libertarians are pawns in someone else's conspiracy?

Sorry for digressing.

Libertarians want less laws, they look for someplace where they can have their less laws agenda passed.

Problem isn't apathy at the voting booth so much as that sometimes other people find they want laws and libertarians (for reasons both good and bad) get outvoted.

And in a situation where your island's structural integrity may depend on having sound construction rules and making sure they are followed this could easily set the stage for problems.


EDIT:

Yes I know there are some private enterprises that work well and may do a decent job on internally policing themselves. However, as has been shown in recent and earlier history, not every private enterprise does and this can result in some very bad things.