Saturday, June 08, 2002 07:09:33 PM

International law and w. Papua's right to independence By pwagner@wnec.edu 

From: pwagner@wnec.edu 
Subject: International law and w. papua's right to independence

Brief on W. Papua's right to independence available.

For a class at the Western New England College School of Law (in Springfield, Massachusetts USA) I wrote mock brief for the International Court of Justice arguing that international law gives West Papua the right to declare an independent state.

The premise was that the U.N. General Assembly was asking the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on independence, refugees, the "Act of Free Choice", and the suspension of human rights. Other students wrote on the other questions, and I've asked the students who wrote for the West Papua side to share their papers on the internet. 

At the moment, only my paper is available. It's at: http://homepage.mac.com/peterwagner/papua_independ_wagner.pdf 

It's not a real legal document, but an academic assignment. As such, it's an example of how the argument could be made. It's also an advocacy piece, so it paints a more rosy picture of West Papua's claim than may be realistic. I say this because I don't want my paper to get people's 
hopes up more than is warranted. Don't get me wrong, I support West Papua's claim to independence, but the reality is that international law's guiding principle is protecting the status quo. The status quo might beat the very strong argument that can be made by West Papua. With that in mind, if anyone is making this kind of argument, I'd be happy to discuss the potential weaknesses. 

But in any event, I think the arguments in my paper and those of my classmates should be useful politically if not legally.

I'll let you all know if I get other papers to post. Any feedback you may have would be appreciated.

Best,

Peter Wagner