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The Applicability of the Principle of Self-Determination to the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2017

James M. Wilson Jr. ,
Angel Calderón-Cruz  and
John Tarkong
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Abstract

There can be no doubt that the principle of self-determination is applicable to the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. The UN Charter applies it. The United States as administering authority under its 1947 trusteeship agreement with the Security Council has explicitly and repeatedly recognized its applicability. The real question is precisely what elements of the principle are applicable, how they are to be applied, and within what framework.

Type
The Applicability of the Principle of Self-Determination to Unintegrated Territories of the United States: The Cases of Puerto Rico and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 67 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 67th Annual Meeting Washington, D.C. April 12-14, 1973 , November 1973 , pp. 21 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1973

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Footnotes

*

U.S. Deputy Representative for Micronesian Status Negotiations.

References

1 Throughout this presentation the terms “Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands” and “Micronesia” will be used interchangeably, although it is recognized that the latter term is sometimes considered broader in scope and lacks the precision of the former.

2 Emerson, R., Self-Determination 65 AJIL 474 (1971)Google Scholar.

3 Johnson, H. S., Self-Determination within the Community of Nations 200 (1967)Google Scholar.

4 Nor is it profitable for present purposes to engage in a long exposition of the differences between the “right” and the “principle” of self-determination. Emerson, Higgins, Gross, and others have worked this over well, with essentially inconclusive results. We are dealing wisely here with only the lesser of these and it is unnecessary to decide now whether there is also a legal “right.” (See Emerson, supra note 2, at 460-61).

5 Article 76 specifically makes reference to the Purposes of the United Nations, including inter alia the “principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples,” in establishing the objectives of the Trusteeship System.

6 TIAS 1665, 61 Stat. 3302-03. (1947).

7 See statement of U.S. Representative to the Trusteeship Council, June 13, 1961. UN Doc. T/PV 1147, at 7.

8 See General Assembly Res. 2625(XXV), Oct. 24, 1970.

9 Report—The Future Political Status Commission, 17, Congress of Micronesia, 3d. Cong., 2d. Sess., Saipan, TTPI, July 1969.

10 Future Political Status of the TTPI Micronesia, at 13, Proc. of the Sixth Round of Negotiations, Barbers Point, Hawaii, Sept 28-Oct 6, 1972.

11 Text of incomplete tentative draft Compact is appended to Final Joint Communique issued in Wash., D. C. Aug. 1972. Proc. of Fifth Round, Micronesian Status Negotiations, Wash., D. C., July 12-August 11, 1972, at 20-35.

12 UN Doc. T/PV 1389 at 11 (1972).

13 See Bunche, R., Trusteeship and Non-Self-Governing Territories in the Charter of the United Nations, 13 Dept. State Bull. 1037, 1038-1040. (1945)Google Scholar.

14 See Toussaint, E., The Trusteeship System of the United Nations, 58 ff. (1956)Google Scholar.

15 Quoted by Amb. F. Haydn Williams in Hearings before the Sub-Comm. on Territories and Insular Affairs, House Comm. on Interior and Insular Affairs, March 15, 1973 (not yet published).

16 UN Doc. T/PV 1389, at 11 (1972).

17 “The Future Political Status of the TTPI,” at 68, Offi. Rec. of the Fourth Round of Micronesia Future Political Status Talks, April 2-13, 1972.

18 6 UNCIO 295 (1945).

19 Fisher, R., The Participation of Micro-States in International Affairs, [1968] Proc. Amer. Soc. of Int. Law, 166.Google Scholar

20 * University of Virginia School of Law.