How to Rule Your Own Country: The Weird and Wonderful World of Micronations

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How to Rule Your Own Country: The Weird and Wonderful World of Micronations
ISBN
978-1-742-23773-2 (paperback)
978-1-742-23850-0 (e-book)

How to Rule Your Own Country: The Weird and Wonderful World of Micronations is a 2022 book by Australian lawyers and legal academics

micronations, extant and defunct, as well as their motivations for declaring sovereignty. An overarching theme is the disproportionate number of micronations located within Australia. How to Rule Your Own Country is a follow-up to Hobbs' and Williams' more academic 2021 work Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty.[1][2]

Context and publication

How to Rule Your Own Country: The Weird and Wonderful World of Micronations was authored by Australian legal academics

micronations since 22 April 2021.[4] They are both experts in international law;[5] Hobbs is a human rights lawyer and Williams an Australian constitutional law professor.[6]

How to Rule Your Own Country was published by the

micronations, extant and defunct, as well as their motivations for declaring sovereignty.[10][11]

Content

Prince Leonard in the Principality of Hutt River
, one of the micronations profiled in How to Rule Your Own Country

How to Rule Your Own Country particularly deals with an overarching theme on the disproportionate number of micronations located within Australia, which the authors explore in the first chapter and attribute to "larrikin tradition" and the country's remoteness.[P 2] Hobbs and Williams also write that while many countries may persecute micronations, Australia in comparison actively tolerates them.[P 3]

The second chapter is dedicated to the

libertarian principles.[P 6]

The fifth chapter explores various

squatters on a London property after the local council planned to evict them. The squatters succeeded and Frestonia remains active as a local community.[P 8]

Next, Hobbs and Williams discuss micronations related to environmental causes.

Grand Duchy of Westarctica, which claims Marie Byrd Land. Proclaimed by Travis McHenry, McHenry uses the micronation to raise awareness on climate change's effects on Antarctica's wildlife.[P 9]

The Principality of Outer Baldonia, established in 1949, claimed sovereignty over a portion of Outer Bald Tusket Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. When the Soviet publication Literaturnaya Gazeta published a critique of the charter of Outer Baldonia in 1953, founder Russell Arundel threatened to withdraw Outer Baldonia's recognition from the Soviet Union unless the article was retracted. When the magazine did not respond, Arundel declared war on the USSR and declared victory as he received no response. Outer Baldonia effectively dissolved in 1973 after Arundel sold the island to the Nova Scotia Bird Society for $1. The Republic of Molossia in the United States, a satirical benevolent dictatorship run by Kevin Baugh, was created for comedic value. The eighth chapter concludes with the Great Bitter Lake Association, created as a micronation by the crews of 15 ships who were stranded in the Suez Canal during the Six-Day War.[P 10]

In the final chapter, the authors first discuss

knighthood and faced fraud charges in the 1990s; but the case was abandoned after a hung jury. Next, the authors discuss Noah Musingku, creator of the pyramid scheme U-Vistract to provide finances for an independent Bougainville Island. Around 2004, he declared himself king of his own Kingdom of Papaala, and upon secessionist leader Francis Ona's death in 2005, Musingku also declared himself king of Ona's Me'ekamui. Hobbs and Williams conclude on the Dominion of Melchizedek founded in 1990. Gerhard Bacher, one of its founders, tried to use cheques issued by fictitious Melchizedek banks to open legitimate bank accounts in Hong Kong, but failed and was sentenced to 6 months in prison. In 1998, the dominion recognised the unrecognised Republic of Kosova. Desperate for any political support, president Ibrahim Rugova quickly announced that it had been recognised by Melchizedek unaware that it was a fictional country.[P 11]

Reception

Celina Ribeiro, writing for

The Weekend Australian disliked how—noting Hobbs and Williams' previous academic work on micronations—How to Rule Your Own Country preferred "to let the implicit comedy of micronationalism speak for itself" as opposed to studying micronations from a more academic legal perspective, adding that they "could have been a little more generous with their academic expertise". He further added that while he enjoyed the book overall, he wondered if Hobbs and Williams had "underestimated the readers' appetite for something more substantial", and said that the indigenous Murrawarri Republic should not be considered on the same level as the Principality of Hutt River.[2]

Frank Bongiorno of

Aboriginal sovereignty.[10] Simon Caterson, writing for The Sydney Morning Herald's weekly newsletter The Booklist, gave a positive review. He called the book entertaining and added that it "reveals that the ambition to rule your own country is expressed nowhere more often than in Australia." Caterson appreciated the section of the book devoted to the small number of micronations which are exclusively female, which he said was "one of the more intriguing sections".[11]

See also

References

Primary sources

  1. front matter
    "
  2. ^ Hobbs & Williams 2022, pp. 22–23, 26
  3. ^ Hobbs & Williams 2022, p. 11
  4. ^ Hobbs & Williams 2022, "'While I Breathe, I Hope': The Principality of Hutt River"
  5. ^ Hobbs & Williams 2022, "'From the Sea, Freedom': The Principality of Sealand"
  6. ^ Hobbs & Williams 2022, "Libertarian paradise: The Republic of Minerva"
  7. ^ Hobbs & Williams 2022, "Liberty on the high seas: Reef republics and seasteads"
  8. ^ Hobbs & Williams 2022, "Fighting for change: Political protest and law reform"
  9. ^ Hobbs & Williams 2022, "Environmental micronations: Creating a country to save the planet"
  10. ^ Hobbs & Williams 2022, "Humour and boredom: Playing a king"
  11. ^ Hobbs & Williams 2022, "Frauds and scams: The great micronation rip-offs"

Bibliography

Secondary sources

  1. ^ "Purchase Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty". Cambridge University Press. n.d. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  2. ^
    The Weekend Australian
    . The Australian. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  3. ^ "Purchase Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty". Cambridge University Press. n.d. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  4. ^ "Works by Hobbs, H; Williams, G". Open Publications of UTS Scholars (OPUS). University of Technology Sydney. n.d. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  5. doi:10.21463/shima.159
    . Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  6. ^ a b Ribeiro, Celina (6 November 2022). "'Remarkable', 'gorgeous', 'entertaining': the best Australian books out in November". The Guardian. How to Rule Your Own Country by Harry Hobbs and George Williams. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  7. ^ "How to Rule Your Own Country: The weird and wonderful world of micronations". Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. n.d. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  8. ^ "How to Rule Your Own Country: The weird and wonderful world of micronations". University of New South Wales Press. n.d. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  9. ^ "How to rule your own country : the weird and wonderful world of micronations / Harry Hobbs & George Williams". National Library of Australia. n.d. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  10. ^ a b Bongiorno, Frank (January 2023). "Greed and crankery". Australian Book Review. No. 450. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  11. ^ a b Caterson, Simon (6 January 2023). Steger, Jason (ed.). "Self-proclaimed rulers of small lands keep dreaming big". The Sydney Morning Herald. The Booklist. Retrieved 18 January 2023.

External links

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