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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2013

Self-determination, sovereignty disputes and dependent territories: An analysis of the 2013 referendum in the Falkland Islands

Résumé

The Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) are a small archipelago in the South Atlantic. Under British administration since 1833, with the exception of a short period of Argentine military rule in 1982 at the time of the war, the islands are the subject of a sovereignty dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom. As a British overseas territory, they take part in some programmes of the European Union . Assessing the merits of the conflicting claims is an arduous task that goes well beyond the ambit of this paper. The Argentine claim is based on the notion of continuity between the former Spanish empire and the states that were born following its demise in the early 19 th century. In this vision the British presence on the islands is viewed as a clear infringement of the territorial integrity inherited from the former colonial power. The United Kingdom's position was initially based on an early claim to the islands, before the end of Spanish colonial rule in South America and the peaceful occupation of the disputed territory for a long period. More recently, self-determination has clearly become the single most important weapon in the British armoury, with successive Prime Ministers reasserting the now well-known position that any change in the constitutional status of the territory requires the consent of the inhabitants. The referendum held on 10 March 2013 returned very clear results with only 3 voters answering ―no » to the maintaining of the current status. This came as no surprise and the referendum was widely dismissed in Argentina as just a public relations exercise that had no legal value. For the representatives of the islanders and indeed for the British government on the other hand the referendum was an exercise in self-determination. This paper will address the background to the referendum and the implications for the future of the dispute. Central to the analysis is the assumption that the referendum has to be seen as part of an effort to convince the world that the Falkland Islanders are a people.
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hal-01465271 , version 1 (11-02-2017)

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  • HAL Id : hal-01465271 , version 1

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Marc Fourches. Self-determination, sovereignty disputes and dependent territories: An analysis of the 2013 referendum in the Falkland Islands. La pratique référendaire et l'idéal démocratique européen, EHIC, Jun 2013, Clermont-Ferrand, France. ⟨hal-01465271⟩
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