International Status in the Shadow of Empire: Nauru and the Histories of International Law (Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law, Series Number 150)

La 4ème de couv. indique : "Nauru is often figured as an anomaly in the international order. This book offers a new account of Nauru's imperial history and examines its significance to the histories of international law. Drawing on theories of jurisdiction and bureaucracy, it reconstructs four shifts in Nauru's status - from German protectorate, to League of Nations C Mandate, to UN Trust Territory, to sovereign state - as a means of redescribing the transition from the nineteenth century imperial order to the twentieth century state system. The book argues that as international status shifts, imperial form accretes: as Nauru's status shifted, what occurred at the local level was a gradual process of bureaucratisation. Two conclusions emerge from this argument. The first is that imperial administration in Nauru produced the Republic's post-independence 'failures'. The second is that international recognition of sovereign status is best understood as marking a beginning, not an end, of the process of decolonisation." Cover Half-title page Series page Title page Copyright page Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Prologue 1 International Status, Imperial Form: Nauru and the Histories of International Law 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Nauru as Symptom versus Nauru as Parable 1.3 On Administrative Form: Attending to Practices of Jurisdiction and Bureaucracy 1.4 The Argument: Status Shifts, Form Accretes 1.5 Situating this Book in the Field 1.6 Telling an Administrative Story: Strengths and Limitations 1.7 The Structure of the Book 2 From Trading Post to Protectorate, 1888 2.1 Introduction 2.2 1884: the DHPG Pays its First Dividend 2.3 The Reluctance of the Bismarckian Reich 2.4 Hamburg Trading Firms and the Legacy of the Hansa 2.5 Hanseatic Firms in the Pacific 2.6 The Reich, Imperial Expansion and the Berlin Conference of 1884 2.7 The Concept of the Protectorate 2.8 The ‘Colonial Protectorate’ 2.9 The Establishment of German Protectorates 2.10 Concern in the Australasian Colonies over German Imperial Expansion 2.11 German and British Consular Jurisdiction in the Western Pacific 2.12 The Establishment of the German Protectorate of the Marshall Islands 2.13 The Legal Structure of the German Protectorate Regime 2.14 The Agreement between the Jaluit Gesellschaft and the Reich 2.15 The Incorporation of Nauru into the Marshall Islands Protectorate 2.16 Nauru’s Incorporation into the Marshall Islands Protectorate as a Matter of Law 2.17 International Status and Imperial Form: Administration in Nauru 2.18 Conclusion 3 From Protectorate to Colony to Mandate, 1920 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Administration of Nauru as Part of the Marshall Islands Protectorate 3.3 The Collapse of the German Protectorates and the Assertion of Direct Rule 3.4 The Federation of Australia and Taxonomies of British Imperial Form 3.5 Agriculture, Phosphate, Labour and Race in the Pacific 3.6 The Pacific Islands Company and its Agreement with the Jaluit Gesellschaft 3.7 The Right Passed from the Gesellschaft to the Pacific Phosphate Company 3.8 The Commencement of Phosphate Operations on Nauru 3.9 Nauru, War and Australian ‘Sub-Empire’ in the Pacific 3.10 Internationalisation, the Mandatory Principle and the Peace Treaty 3.11 The Nauru Island Agreement of 1919 3.12 Incorporation of the Nauru Island Agreement and its Relationship to Article 22 3.13 The Transfer Agreement with the Pacific Phosphate Company 3.14 The Mandate for Nauru and the Tension between International and Sub-Imperial Status 3.15 Conclusion 4 From Mandate to Trust Territory, 1947 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Administration of Nauru as a C Mandate of the League of Nations 4.3 Phosphate, Agriculture, Population and Race in the Australian Interwar Period 4.4 The Co-Existence of Mandates and Protectorates: the Interwar International 4.5 The ‘Colonial Question’ and the Failing Legitimacy of the League of Nations 4.6 The Return to War and the Japanese Occupation of Nauru 4.7 The Formation of the United Nations and the Trusteeship Council 4.8 Nauru becomes a Trust Territory 4.9 Conclusion 5 From Trust Territory to Sovereign State, 1968 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Administration of Nauru as a Trust Territory 5.3 Trusteeship, Decolonisation and the South West Africa Cases 5.4 The Nauru Talks: Resettlement, Political Independence and Phosphate 5.5 Independence Day: Nauru becomes a Republic 5.6 The Constitution of the Republic of Nauru 5.7 Conclusion: The Ironies of Nauruan Independence 6 After Independence: Sovereign Status and the Republic of Nauru 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Nauru v. Australia and the Unresolved Question of Rehabilitation 6.3 After Independence: Deployments of Sovereign Status and the Future of Nauru 6.4 Conclusion Bibliography Index "This book proceeds from the premise that the Republic of Nauru is not anomalous to the contemporary international legal order but deeply symptomatic of it. The story it tells began as a response to a deceptively simple question: how did Naoerō - a single coral atoll in the Western Pacific, 21 square kilometres in size, beloved home to the Nauruan people who at the time of independence numbered just over 6,000 - become the Republic of Nauru in 1968, the third smallest sovereign state in the world? It has developed over time into a response to a more pointed question: what might a close reading of the history of imperial administration in Nauru reveal about the continuities between nineteenth century European imperialism and twentieth century international law that accounts focusing on the received 'centres' of international legal formation do not? The answer given here takes the form of a narrative of four shifts in the international status of Nauru since the violent incorporation of the island into the German protectorate of the Marshall Islands in 1888, and the changes in administrative form at the local level that accompanied those shifts. The book reconstructs in turn the declaration of protectorate status, the designation of Nauru as a C Class Mandate by the League of Nations in 1920, its re-designation as a United Nations Trust Territory in 1947, and the recognition of Nauru as a sovereign state in 1968"-- Provided by publisher La 4ème de couv. indique : "Nauru is often figured as an anomaly in the international order. This book offers a new account of Nauru's imperial history and examines its significance to the histories of international law. Drawing on theories of jurisdiction and bureaucracy, it reconstructs four shifts in Nauru's status - from German protectorate, to League of Nations C Mandate, to UN Trust Territory, to sovereign state - as a means of redescribing the transition from the nineteenth century imperial order to the twentieth century state system. The book argues that as international status shifts, imperial form accretes: as Nauru's status shifted, what occurred at the local level was a gradual process of bureaucratisation. Two conclusions emerge from this argument. The first is that imperial administration in Nauru produced the Republic's post-independence 'failures'. The second is that international recognition of sovereign status is best understood as marking a beginning, not an end, of the process of decolonisation." This is an elegant, readable narrative of Nauru's imperial history that makes a compelling argument for the island's significance in the history of international law. It includes crucial new research for scholars in international law and history, as well as in German history, Pacific history, and contemporary international relations.