The Rise and Fall of Eunomia

• Author: Frédéric Mégret - Alexandra Harrington
• Position: McGill University - The State University of New York at Albany
• Pages: 159-188

e Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law

ISSN: 2338-7602; E-ISSN: 2338-770X

http://www.ijil.org

© 2017 e Institute for Migrant Rights Press

THE RISE AND FALL OF EUNOMIA

Frédéric Mégret

McGill University

E-mail: frederic.megret@mcgill.ca

Alexandra Harrington

he State University of New York at Albany

CHAPTER 1: EUNOMIA RISING

It had been a masterfully planned operation from start to nish. When

Grigory Savros heard the news that, following a massive volcanic erup-

tion in the South Pacic, a new island, roughly six by eight miles, had

emerged, he at rst paid little attention. e incident had of course gen-

erated considerable popular interest and, as the only known island of

its kind in several millennia, was the buzz of geologists. But the volca-

nic fumes arose hundreds of miles away from the nearest ight path,

and the island was rst reported as barely habitable. Savros had other

things to think about. One of the world’s richest men, he had made his

fortune betting against the nancial stability of emerging economies

through complex derivative products that only a few insiders—if any

—could fathom. He had since reinvented himself as, to use the Times ’

cover’s expression, “e World’s Biggest Philanthropist,” one involved

in everything from art to human rights, ghting global diseases to re-

ducing global warming. Besides, he was already the proud owner of no

less than two islands (one in the Caribbean, and one in the Mediterra-

nean) in which he hardly ever spent any time.

But one detail had caught Savros’ attention and vaguely stirred

up recollections from his international law days, before he became a

wealthy investor, when he was still what he sometimes described in

IV Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law 159-88 (January 2016)

160

Mégret & Harrington

interviews as an “idealistic law student” (he had quickly abandoned his

initial idea of working in international law, a discipline he had found to

be largely irrelevant to the ways of the world). e island was beyond

the territorial waters or even the exclusive economic zone of any State.

As such, it was no less than the rst bit of prime terra nullius real estate

to emerge in at least 200 years (with the exception of “fake” terra nullius

of colonization). Of course, this fact had not escaped several foreign

ministries, but of the few states with any presence in the region, most

concluded that it would be far too expensive to maintain a base on the

island, and quickly gave up the notion. e land and the surrounding

waters were devoid of any particular resource, at least the sort that

could be exploited protably. ese were hard nancial times globally,

and no State had the appetite for an extra piece of rock in the mid-

Pacic, with no economic or geopolitical value. One landlocked State

in Central Asia expressed some interest in acquiring the island so that

its Great Leader could claim to have “brought the sea” to his country,

but the plan quickly foundered. ere was some vague talk at the U.N.

General Assembly of “internationalizing” the rock (which still had no

name), but no one really knew what for, and the matter was deferred to

a committee. A window of opportunity had been opened, but no one

could quite suspect what use it would be put to.

Genesis and Settlement

With no expressions of interest from States in the region, Savros

summoned his inner circle of advisors to the privacy of his mountain

getaway. What emerged from this evening is still a matter of speculation

and what we know of it has been reconstructed from scattered archives

and memoires of those who were in attendance. At rst, Savros had

apparently been characteristically enigmatic about the reasons for

bringing them together at short notice. But aer dinner and over glasses

of (very good) cognac, he had ipped a switch in his parlor, turning

on a spectacular holographic display of a paradisiacal island, rich with

elds, roads and villages hovering just above the guests, and had made

the following almost comically solemn announcement: “Ladies, and

gentlemen, welcome to the soon-to-be state of Eunomia, the rst State

built by and for civil society, a State dedicated to the highest values of

justice, solidarity and freedom!” e guests had been abbergasted and,

were it not for Savros’s reputation for ts of anger, might have shared