International Status in the Shadow of Empire

This book proceeds from the premise that the Republic of Nauru is not anomalous to the contemporary international legal order but deeply symptomatic of it. The story it tells began as a response to a deceptively simple question: how did Naoerō - a single coral atoll in the Western Pacific, 21 square kilometres in size, beloved home to the Nauruan people who at the time of independence numbered just over 6,000 - become the Republic of Nauru in 1968, the third smallest sovereign state in the world? It has developed over time into a response to a more pointed question: what might a close reading of the history of imperial administration in Nauru reveal about the continuities between nineteenth century European imperialism and twentieth century international law that accounts focusing on the received 'centres' of international legal formation do not? The answer given here takes the form of a narrative of four shifts in the international status of Nauru since the violent incorporation of the island into theGerman protectorate of the Marshall Islands in 1888, and the changes in administrative form at the local level that accompanied those shifts. The book reconstructs in turn the declaration of protectorate status, the designation of Nauru as a C Class Mandate by the League of Nations in 1920, its re-designation as a United Nations Trust Territory in 1947, and the recognition of Nauru as a sovereign state in 1968--