On March 20

On this day in ...

... 1956 (55 years ago today), Tunisia won independence from France, which had exercised a "protectorate" over the North African territory since 1881. In 1987 Tunisia's 1st President would be deposed by a successor -- Zine El Abidine Ben Ali -- who, as we've posted, ruled until his own people ousted him from office this past January. Protests have persisted since then, and the flight of refugees from conflict-ridden Libya has exacerbated the situation.

(Prior March 20 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

Study dispute resolution in Cyprus

(Delighted to welcome back alumna Anna Spain, who contributes this guest post)

I am pleased to announce a new program on international dispute resolution that I’ll be helping to teach this summer. It will take place in Cyprus, a venue that provides a unique and important context for the study of international dispute resolution.
In 1960, Cyprus became an independent nation after being under British colonial rule, thus aggravating the ongoing dispute between Turkey and Britain over the territory. Hostilities in 1963 and 1974 ultimately resulted in Turkish Cypriots declaring their independence as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus from the Republic of Cyprus. (This history is the subject of a post yesterday as well as many prior IntLawGrrls posts.)
Today, the island nation is divided de facto into these two communities by an UN-administered buffer zone. The UN Peacekeeping Mission (logo below left) has served to maintain the ceasefire on the island since 1964 under the mandate of UN Security Council Resolution 186. Issues pertaining to property, territory, governance and the Turkish vs. Greek cultural identities remain, although economic development has led to increased cooperation in recent years.
In 2002, efforts to resolve the dispute began under the Annan Plan, which was formally presented to the parties by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on March 31, 2004. Although the Plan, which proposed terms to adjust the territory and address outstanding property disputes, was not accepted by the parties at that time, future efforts are being considered.
Our innovative study abroad program is inspired by this history.
It’ll be taught by Cesare Romano, Professor of Law at Loyola Law School and Director of the Cyprus Program and me. We will strive to understand the complex factors contributing to this and other international disputes around the world. As detailed here, we will spend one week at the University of Nicosia in the southern part of the island of Cyprus, and two weeks at Eastern Mediterranean University in the north. Participants will also visit the UN Peacekeeping Mission.
The program is designed to offer a comprehensive study of
► International dispute resolution mechanisms; and
► How those mechanisms are used to manage international conflict and to resolve international legal disputes.
The three-week, four-credit course will cover a broad spectrum of topics, including international law, the use of adjudication in international courts and tribunals, negotiation, mediation and other peacebuilding approaches.
I am delighted to be involved in this initiative, both professionally and personally.
The situation in Cyprus offers me an opportunity to expand my research and scholarship about how process, through international dispute resolution, can contribute to resolving conflict and influencing state-behavior. Identity-based conflicts and intra-state conflicts, like the one in Cyprus, are on the rise, expanding international disputes beyond the traditional inter-state context. As a result, new approaches are required. (See my recent article discussing this, Integration Matters: Rethinking the Architecture of International Dispute Resolution.) This initiative will also draw upon my prior experiences as an attorney-adviser at the U.S. Department of State – working with the UN Compensation Commission and the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal – in considering ways to approach the property disputes that are a contributing factor to the situation on Cyprus.
On a more personal note, I began my work in this field 17 years ago when, as a high school student, I helped mediate racial tensions between black and white members of my community. I understand first-hand how sensitive and challenging addressing identity-disputes can be. I also believe that progress is possible, and I look forward to sharing this optimism with those who join us in Cyprus this summer.
This program is open to law students as well as members of the general public. Applications are due April 8, 2011. For more information or to apply, visit here.

On February 16

On this day in ...
... 1961 (50 years ago today), by a margin of 41 to 9, the House of Representatives of Cyprus voted to move toward membership in the British Commonwealth of Nations. The vote authorized the country's President, Archbishop Makarios, to seek a 5-year trial membership. Cyprus had won independence the previous August from Britain, which had administered the island in 1878 and annexed it in 1914. Cyprus remains a Commonwealth member to this day. (map credit)

(Prior February 16 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

On February 9

On this day in ...
... 1916 (95 years ago today), Britain began conscripting men between 18 and 41 years of age to fight in the conflict that it had entered nearly 2 years earlier. A million persons already had volunteered, but more were needed due to heavy losses. (The July 1916 Battle of the Somme would claim 20,000 British lives on the 1st day alone.) By the time World War I ended, more than "4.5 million Britons served in arms (in addition to over three million troops from the British Empire)." Many in the latter group arrived only after significant resistance in their home countries, as described, e.g., here (photo credit) and here.

(Prior February 9 posts are here, here, and here.)

On January 11

On this day in ...
... 1943, in what The New York Times called a "first concrete step toward the new era that is expected to follow the war in the Far East, with full restoration of China's sovereignty over her own soil," United States, Britain, and China signed treaties that ceded extraterritoriality and other special privileges that the 1st 2 countries had claimed over China (then flying the Republic of China/Nationalist flag at left) for the preceding hundred years. The Chinese-American treaty was signed in Washington; the Chinese-British treaty, by which Britain held on to its claims over Hong Kong, was signed in Chungking (today, the Sichuan province city of Chongqing).

(Prior January 11 posts are here, here, and here.)

On December 21

On this day in ...
... 1979, in London, delegates from Britain and 3 Africa-based groups signed the Lancaster House Agreement by which the territory then known as Rhodesia gained full independence from Britain. It had been the site of multiparty conflict, and Ian Smith had declared it independent years earlier. Signers in addition to Smith included Robert Mugabe (prior posts), a Patriotic Front leader who in 1980 would be elected President of Zimbabwe (flag at right), as the country is now known. Among the matters negotiated was land reform -- as we've posted, still a source of controversy.

(Prior December 21 posts are here, here, and here.)

On December 18

On this day in ...
... 2003, Susan Travers (left) died in the Paris area, 94 years after her birth in southern England. The daughter of an admiral, she grew up "a young tennis-playing socialite in the south of France," and eventually "became the first and only woman ever to serve" in the French Foreign Legion. Her sojourn began with the onset of the World War II. Travers joined the French Red Cross, serving 1st as a nurse and later as an ambulance driver. (photo credit) She volunteered as a driver for Free French officers in the North Africa campaign, and took part in a month-long battle with Nazi Germans at Bir Hakeim, Libya. Officially admitted to the Foreign Legion's ranks, Travers, "creating her own uniform," served in Vietnam, then married another legionnaire and retired to Paris. Travers published a memoir shortly before her death.

(Prior December 18 posts are here, here, and here.)

On December 16

On this day in ...
... 1773, the deadline date for the collection of taxes pursuant to the Tea Act recently passed by the Parliament in London, "some 50 men, unconvincingly disguised as Mohawk Indians," broke out in "war whoops" as they boarded 3 English vessels, split open its cargo of tea, and threw it into the harbor. This Boston Tea Party

was quickly restaged in other port cities in America and tended to polarize the sides in the widening dispute.

(image credit) As time would tell, the American Revolution was just a few years away.

(Prior December 16 posts are here, here, and here.)

On November 25

On this day in ...
... 1975 (35 years ago today), Suriname won independence, with Dutch consent, nearly 21 years after it had become "an autonomous part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands," and more than 300 years after it had become a colony of that European country. Today the country (map at right), about the same size as the U.S. state of Georgia and located at the northeastern coast of South America, is a republic with nearly half a million inhabitants. Its largest population bloc, at 27% is Hindustani (East Indian).


(Prior November 25 posts are here, here, and here.)

On November 17

On this day in ...
... 1950 (55 years ago today), the U.N. General Assembly moved Libya a step closer to independence when it adopted Resolution 387(V). The resolution acknowledged the work undertaken toward that end by the U.N. Commissioner in Libya. It called for "early, full and effective implementation" of a 1949 resolution stating that the North African land -- various portions of which had been subjected to rule by Italy, France, and Britain -- "shall be constituted a united and independent sovereign state." Libya would declare independence a little over a year later, on December 24, 1951, and thus become

the first country to achieve independence through the United Nations and one of the first former European possessions in Africa to gain independence.

(Prior November 17 posts are here, here, and here.)

On November 14

On this day in ...

... 1975 (35 years ago today), the Madrid Accords were signed by Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania. By the terms of this treaty respecting the region now known as Western Sahara, Spain agreed to withdraw from its former colonial holding no later than February 28, 1976. Following governance by a transitional tripartite administration, administrative control was to be ceded to Morocco and Mauritania, 2 countries that each had wanted to annex the entire territory. As we've posted, the region came under Moroccan military control the same year that the Accords were signed, and the status of Western Sahara remains in dispute to this day.

(Prior November 14 posts are here, here, and here.)

On October 16

On this day in ...
... 1905 (105 years ago today), a Partition of Bengal took effect, having been announced 3 months earlier by George Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy of what then was the British colony of India. Located in the northeast region of the subcontinent, at the bay of the same name. Bengal province was about the size of the country of France. (map credit) But it had a population of more than 80 million people, many more than France. Opposition to the partition led to its annulment in 1911. Today 1 area within the region is the country of Bangladesh; another is part of the country of India.

(Prior October 16 posts are here, here, and here.)

Decolonization dance

Indépendance cha-cha is the lively name Le Monde has given to the history of French decolonization featured in this multimedia presentation.
With the run of the cursor you can stream through time, clicking to stop when the spirit moves. Examples:
► Listen to the rallying song Débout les Zouaves while reading about World War I (1914-1918), during which French forces included more than 200,000 persons from colonies in sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar -- more than 25,000 of whom died in the conflict.
► The Colonial Exposition -- and the Counter-Exposition mounted by André Breton and other surrealists -- both held in Paris in 1931.
► Publication of Peau noire, masques blancs (1952) by the Martinique-born psychiatrist and anticolonial theorist Frantz Fanon (depicted not only in a photograph but also via audio of a lecture he gave).
► The securing, in rapid succession in 1960 and 1961, of independence by many former French colonies in Africa; followed by occasional French interventions ever since.
► 2007 accusations of corruption by leaders in certain African countries, about which IntLawGrrls posted.
► Video of a 2007 speech in Senegal by President Nicolas Sarkozy -- that that left "Africans ... seething."
Worth your time to give cha-cha a spin.

On October 10

On this day in ...
... 1970 (40 years ago today), the South Pacific group of islands known as Fiji won independence from Britain, pursuant to the country's new Constitution. The colonizer left behind lend tenure issues that rankled various groups in Fiji (flag at left). On this same day in 1987, a military government revoked that Constitution, leading the Commonwealth of Nations to expel Fiji and a number of states, including Australia and New Zealand, to decline to recognize the military government. A "coup cycle" ensued; the most recent occurred in 2006.

(Prior October 10 posts are here, here, and here.)

On October 1

On this day in ...
... 1800 (210 years ago today), Spain returned Louisiana to France in a secret pact known as the Treaty of San Ildefonso, named after the town northwest of Madrid that's home to La Granja, the immense royal palace at right. (photo credit) Retrocession of Louisiana, which Spain had wrested from France in a 1763 peace treaty, was contingent on the establishment somewhere in Italy of a "kingdom" to be ruled by a son of the Duke of Parma. Following further machinations and negotiations, the transfer of Louisiana took effect in 1802. By means of the Louisiana Purchase the new colonial authority, France, sold it to the United States the next year.

(Prior October 1 posts are here, here, and here.)

On September 20

On this day in ...
... 1960 (50 years ago today), the United Nations admitted 14 newly independent States -- Cyprus plus 13 African countries, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Dahomey (today, Benin), Gabon, Ivory Coast, Malagasy Republic (Madagascar), Niger, Republic of the Congo-Brazzaville, Republic of Congo-Leopoldville (Democratic Republic of Congo), Somalia, Togo, and Upper Volta (Burkina Faso). As a result of this admission, predicted The New York Times, "The voting balance will have shifted decisively from the big 'cold war' superpowers to the smaller nations." At the end of the month, flags of the new members were raised (right) at U.N. headquarters in New York. (photo credit)


(Prior September 20 posts are here, here, and here.)

On September 16

On this day in ...
... 1795 (215 years ago today), Dutch troops surrendered Cape Town 2 days after British troops entered the South African city at the Cape of Good Hope. Britain would relinquish the colony pursuant to the 1802 Treaty of Amiens, but would soon reclaim and hold it for the balance of the 19th century.


(Prior September 16 posts are here, here, and here.)

On September 8

On this day in ...
... 1565 (445 years ago today),"with many banners spread, to the sound of trumpets and salutes of artillery," according to a contemporary journal, a Spanish "general took formal possession of the country in the name of his Majesty" -- the country being what is now the United States. The landing took place at what is now St. Augustine (right), a city on the northeastern coast of Florida. (credit for 1589 map) The event marked establishment of the 1st continuously occupied European settlement in North America, then inhabited by the peoples now called Native Americans.


(Prior September 8 posts are here, here, and here.)

On July 25

On this day in ...
... 1755 (255 years ago today), the British colonists in Halifax, Nova Scotia, decided to expel to expel their French-speaking counterparts, the Acadians, "and to disperse them among the English colonies on the Atlantic seaboard." The forced migration arose out of the refusal of the Acadians, who'd lived in the area since 1604, "to take an unqualified oath of allegiance to Britain." "Between 1755 and 1763, approximately 10 000 Acadians were deported," amid terror, burnings, starvation, and disease. Some Acadians took refuge elsewhere in Canada, including in indigenous communities. Others went back to France or to other colonies in North America, among them Louisiana, where Cajun culture persists to this day. (credit for sculpture of the subject of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Evangeline, about the Acadians' flight)

(Prior July 25 posts are here, here, and here.)

On July 1

On this day in ...
... 1960 (50 years ago today), the West African country that had become independent 3 years earlier, Ghana, "made a complete break today with the Constituion bequeathed her by Britain in 1957," The New York Times reported. A statement was read in which Britain's Elizabeth II declared, "Frome midnight I shall cease to be your Queen."; a new Constitution took effect; Ghana became a "republic within the British Commonwealth"; and its leader, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, made the transition from Prime Minister to President. Tomorrow, the Ghana national soccer team plays a quarterfinals match in this year's World Cup in South Africa (prior post).

(Prior July 1 posts are here, and here, and here.)