Stanley, Falkland Islands
What’s in a name? What’s in a claim? Twenty years ago the United Kingdom rehabilitated its military reputation, in a military conflict to regain control of an under-populated and windswept archipelago that the British Foreign Office had been trying to give away: The Falkland Islands. The conflict cost 750 Argentinean and 250 British lives, left some twenty to thirty thousand landmines still hidden in 117 locations around the country and secured for Margaret Thatcher another eight years in power. It also provided a test case for international lawyers: how to define sovereignty?
There are a number of approaches that can be taken in answer to that question. Who discovered the islands? Who named them? Who first settled them? Who established the first settled administration? Who established the most recent continuous settlement? Whose rights were confirmed by international treaty? Various colonial powers have made sovereignty claims over the years in respect of one or more of those questions: France, Great Britain, Holland, and Spain. Argentina assumed the legal claims of its former Spanish colonial master. Even the Americans became involved. Irritated at the seizure of three of their fishing vessels, the US government sent the USS Lexington to remove all Argentineans from the island in 1820, declaring the archipelago res nullius, that is, free of any government, adding a further complication for those international lawyers to fret over.
In 1982, the British fought for the rights of the current Falkland Islands people, overwhelmingly of British descent, to determine their own political destiny. Earlier this week, at a service of remembrance in Stanley’s Christ Church Cathedral (photo) respects were paid to those who had sacrificed their lives in this cause.
What’s in a name? What’s in a claim? Twenty years ago the United Kingdom rehabilitated its military reputation, in a military conflict to regain control of an under-populated and windswept archipelago that the British Foreign Office had been trying to give away: The Falkland Islands. The conflict cost 750 Argentinean and 250 British lives, left some twenty to thirty thousand landmines still hidden in 117 locations around the country and secured for Margaret Thatcher another eight years in power. It also provided a test case for international lawyers: how to define sovereignty?
There are a number of approaches that can be taken in answer to that question. Who discovered the islands? Who named them? Who first settled them? Who established the first settled administration? Who established the most recent continuous settlement? Whose rights were confirmed by international treaty? Various colonial powers have made sovereignty claims over the years in respect of one or more of those questions: France, Great Britain, Holland, and Spain. Argentina assumed the legal claims of its former Spanish colonial master. Even the Americans became involved. Irritated at the seizure of three of their fishing vessels, the US government sent the USS Lexington to remove all Argentineans from the island in 1820, declaring the archipelago res nullius, that is, free of any government, adding a further complication for those international lawyers to fret over.
In 1982, the British fought for the rights of the current Falkland Islands people, overwhelmingly of British descent, to determine their own political destiny. Earlier this week, at a service of remembrance in Stanley’s Christ Church Cathedral (photo) respects were paid to those who had sacrificed their lives in this cause.
