Micro Remote Islands: Lands of Freedom or Lands of Despotism?
-
Elisa Bertolini
Elisa Bertolini is Assistant Professor of Comparative Public Law at Bocconi University, Milan.
Abstract
The paper addresses the narrative that qualifies micro and remote islands as lands of freedom, suggesting that they can also be lands of despotism. Philosophers from Plato to Aristotle, to Thomas More, to Montesquieu and Rousseau have claimed that micro polities, preferably insular, represent the ideal society, where everyone is actively engaged in public affairs and pursues common good. Literature has represented islands as lands of freedom, opportunity, challenge, success, adventure, redemption, away from the corruption of Europe. However, in the nineteenth century a new narrative has emerged in fiction, which abandons this idyllic approach: islands as lands of despotism. Islands are interpreted as lawless lands, characterised by rivalries between individuals. Moving from these contrasting suggestions from literature and philosophy, the paper discusses the constitutional arrangements of Commonwealth Caribbean and Pacific micro states, in order to investigate where they stand with respect to the dialectic freedom/despotism.
About the author
Elisa Bertolini is Assistant Professor of Comparative Public Law at Bocconi University, Milan.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Focus: Islands and Insularity: Between Law, Geography, and Fiction
- Islands and Insularity: Between Law, Geography, and Fiction
- The Island Metaphor in Literature and Law
- Between Islands: Colonial Legacies and Cultural Imaginaries
- Insularity, Identity, and Alterity in Patrick White’s A Fringe of Leaves
- Micro Remote Islands: Lands of Freedom or Lands of Despotism?
- Financial Markets as Financial Systems: A Philosophical Dialogue between Offshore Tax Haven Islands and Systemic Failures
- Interdisciplinarity 3.0: The Hub of the Universe or Fantasy Island?
- Research
- On (not) Watching The Lady in Number 6: Digital Holocaust Film, Copyright Infringement and the Obligation to Remember
- Along the Path Towards E-Democracy: The Digital Age and Its ‘Models’
- Law, Narrative and Critique in Contemporary Verbatim Theatre
- Book Reviews
- James Harrington: an Intellectual Biography
- Towards a Theatrical Jurisprudence
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Focus: Islands and Insularity: Between Law, Geography, and Fiction
- Islands and Insularity: Between Law, Geography, and Fiction
- The Island Metaphor in Literature and Law
- Between Islands: Colonial Legacies and Cultural Imaginaries
- Insularity, Identity, and Alterity in Patrick White’s A Fringe of Leaves
- Micro Remote Islands: Lands of Freedom or Lands of Despotism?
- Financial Markets as Financial Systems: A Philosophical Dialogue between Offshore Tax Haven Islands and Systemic Failures
- Interdisciplinarity 3.0: The Hub of the Universe or Fantasy Island?
- Research
- On (not) Watching The Lady in Number 6: Digital Holocaust Film, Copyright Infringement and the Obligation to Remember
- Along the Path Towards E-Democracy: The Digital Age and Its ‘Models’
- Law, Narrative and Critique in Contemporary Verbatim Theatre
- Book Reviews
- James Harrington: an Intellectual Biography
- Towards a Theatrical Jurisprudence
