Book Review : Small states in a legal world

Abstract

Over the last few years, there has been a surge of interest in small states and territories among legal researchers, with several initiatives aimed at raising awareness and fostering research on the specific legal dimensions of ‘small’ jurisdictions (i.e. those with less than 1.5 million residents, in a commonly accepted notion), or even of ‘micro’ ones (even smaller). One reason for this growing interest is the intriguing features of small places, including their unique legal dimensions and their historically successful efforts to survive and stay viable, despite their lacking several elements and resources associated with ‘regular’ states. Another reason for this interest is the perception that they may serve as laboratories or observatories to analyse dynamics and solutions about governance and the law which may be reproducible – or actually work, if covertly – in ‘larger’ jurisdictions worldwide. Thus, small jurisdictions epitomise current issues of interest for all governance/legal systems and jurisdictions, and feature prominently in offering useful elements with which to devise new models of statehood, sovereignty and good governance for the 21st century.