Free Association: the United States Experience
Keitner, Chimène I.; Reisman, W. (2006). "Free Association: the United States Experience". Texas International Law Journal. 39 (1): 1.
- Has attachment: File:WCCR52FM.pdf
Abstract: The ongoing reconfiguration of the international political system at the turn of the twenty-first century points to the need for a range of self-determination options for peoples around the globe. This article outlines the basic features of free association, one of the three options for a self-determining people under General Assembly Resolution 1541.1 An association is formed when two states of unequal power voluntarily establish durable links. In the basic model, one state, the associate, delegates certain responsibilities to the other, the principal, while maintaining its international status as a state. Free associations represent a middle ground between integration and independence.2 International legal scholars and practitioners should not neglect the potential benefits of free association in designing legal and political relationships within and between states.
Three states have compacts of free association with the United States that codify this arrangement: the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau. However, associations do not need to be called associations in order to provide similar benefits. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico also enjoy significant internal self-government and a degree of separate international personality. The details of these relationships, which we explore below, indicate the wide range of possibilities available to political communities seeking certain benefits of sovereign statehood but unwilling or unable fully to bear its burdens.
We were invited to write this article as a follow-up to W. Michael Reisman's 1975 study, Puerto Rico and the International Process: New Roles in Association.3 Lawyers and political leaders in communities seeking a greater degree of self-determination turned to the 1975 study as a guide to the experience of the United States with free association arrangements, and to the relevant international legal principles and precepts. This article brings that study up-to-date and expands the discussion of the U.S. experience beyond Puerto Rico to include the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. It documents the historical and political background of these associations, and it enumerates the principles that govern the creation and maintenance of free association arrangements in accordance with international law. It indicates what free association is, how it has been implemented, and what we perceive to be its strengths and drawbacks. The examples are drawn from the experience of the United States, but the concepts and principles they illustrate are applicable worldwide.
Before we proceed, a caveat with respect to the legal term “associated state” is in order. Words are not, as Justice Holmes said, crystals. Words acquire their meaning in contexts; when contexts change, so too do the meanings. The far-reaching transformations in international politics that are referred to as “globalization” or “interdependence” have radically changed the notion and reality of the independence of a state and its sovereignty...
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MAG: 1510211800 CorpusID: 142276618 OpenAlex: W1510211800
