from: http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/08/08/x-timlwtlwt01009.html Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/08/08/x-timlwtlwt01009.ht ml">THE TIMES: LAW : How a law-less 'data haven' …</A> ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tuesday August 8 2000 LAW ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Previous: Contents page | Other links | Next: Do civilian casualties of war have any rights? A tiny, man-made island is causing an international incident, says Gary Slapper How a law-less 'data haven' is using law to protect itself When is a state not a state? When it is a playground on stilts in 30ft of water, some might say, looking out at Sealand, the world's newest self-proclaimed state, off the Suffolk coast. The Government has apparently allowed itself to be painted into a corner over an intriguing issue of international law. A story that began in an apparently risible way in September 1967, and was nothing much more than a minor item of local news about a small eccentric family, has metamorphosed into an international incident. For at the very time when Parliament has just passed the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which allows private computer information to be monitored where serious crime or breaches of national security are involved, a putative state without any such laws or concerns is threatening the interests of the Government off the port of Felixstowe. During the Second World War, Britain established an artificial island on the high seas. It was equipped with radar and heavy armaments and was occupied by 200 servicemen. Their task was to guard the approaches to the Thames Estuary where convoys of shipping were assembled. After the war the island was abandoned. Then in the winter of 1966, a former major, Roy Bates, took possession of the outpost known as Roughs Tower. On September 2, 1967, Bates and his family hoisted their own flag and later declared the existence of the Principality of Sealand. The island was outside the then existing three-mile territorial waters of Britain. The juridical status of the Principality of Sealand is now the subject of heated legal and political controversy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The island could become the first offshore data haven beyond the gaze of the authorities ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A group of American business entrepreneurs, led by Sean Hastings, 31, is setting up the world's first offshore "data haven" on the island. The computer experts come from the Anguilla-based firm HavenCo Ltd and are keen to launch the only place in the world that can offer almost complete anonymity and privacy to anyone who wants to conduct e-business beyond the gaze of the authorities. Clearly, this matter is of grave concern to the police, the Inland Revenue and the intelligence services. The son of Roy Bates, Prince Michael, 47, has been reported as saying: "It is about freedom and liberty and making it easier for people to do business in private and to express themselves freely." The commonly accepted criteria among jurists for determining whether an entity is a state are taken from the jus gentium - the law of nations. This law is derived from the Institutes of Justinian, the major treatise written by the command of the Roman Emperor Justinian and published in AD 533. One thorny problem for the Government is that according to the three major criteria of statehood, Sealand does appear to have a good claim. The requirements are: a national territory; a people coming together as a nation; and a sovereign state authority. It does not matter that it is only 932sq yd in size because there is no minimum area legally articulated for something to be a state. Vatican City is classified as a state even though it is minuscule. Neither is there a requirement that the population rises above a certain minimum. Nor is it an argument that the structure was created by the Government as it was legally terra nullis - abandoned land - when it was taken over. Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States, signed in 1933, itemises the same criteria as the jus gentium, plus the capacity to enter into relations with other states. Sealand appears also to have satisfied this criterion. If Sealand is an independent state, it could legitimately claim its own coastal waters and regulate its own airspace. The Government is also in difficulties over this because on two occasions it has appeared to endorse the idea that Sealand is both beyond its jurisdiction and has the status of a state. In 1968 the Royal Navy expressed concern over Bates's presence on Sealand and sent in some boats. Bates fired warning shots at them and was then prosecuted in a Crown Court. He argued that the newly named Sealand was beyond British jurisdiction and this was accepted by the trial judge. Then in 1978, three years after Sealand declared itself a sovereign principality, Dutch and German businessmen came over with a business proposition. However, while they were there, they took the fortress and Prince Michael prisoner. He was freed in a counter-attack from the air by King Roy and the businessmen were taken as PoWs. When Germany asked Britain to intervene, it was told that the fortress was beyond British jurisdiction. Students of the relationship between law and realpolitik will be watching developments here closely. The spectacle of a new state with no laws appealing to international law to protect it against an ancient state overflowing with laws cannot help but be intriguing. The author is director of the Law Programme, the Open University; gary.slapper @the-times.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd.. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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