Can an individual buy an island outright? Not Purchase, truly buy sovereignty.?

Question

I know rich people buy islands all the time. You can get online and shop for them all day long, but they are still nonetheless under some governments jurisdiction. I own the property that my house is own, it still belongs to the U.S. government. Could someone buy land outright? In the same fashion that the U.S. bought alaska from Russia and how would one go about this? Not like I could muster the resources to pull off such a feat, just wondering if there's any precedent.

Answer 1

Fortunately or unfortunately sovereignty over a piece of land isn't something that can be bought - it can only be claimed. It doesn't have to be an island either; sovereignty can be claimed over any piece of land (and indeed, territorial waters as well).

The only problem is getting it recognized. If other countries don't recognize your sovereignty claim, then it probably isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

The first step in getting recognition is getting the agreement of the local populace - if you've just bought an uninhabited island, it probably won't be too much of a problem, but if you were to buy instead the south island of New Zealand, considerations of sovereignty would be out of the question unless you could convince most of the people there that the government in Wellington wasn't doing a good enough job.

After that, you need to convince the rest of the world community to accept your claims. This can be done in a number of ways; most traditionally through war. Other ways could be impassioned speeches about the history of oppression you've faced under the current government (not likely if you've just bought an uninhabited island), annexation through providing all of the local services and claiming taxation, or bribery.

The last option is probably the most realistic, although even then it's an extreme longshot. UN member nations tend to be very protective of their sovereign rights, and don't like recognizing new nations if they can avoid it. That said, they do tend to travel in packs, and once a few major nations recognize a new one, the rest do tend to follow along.

So if you have oodles and oodles of money, and can pay off the country that currently claims the island as their territory, and if you can lobby the UK and US governments to convince them to recognize you as well, and if you can buy a few boats to patrol your waters and defend yourself, and if you can bring a suitable population to your island so that you can have government officials to project your sovereignty, then yes, you can spend your way to having your own independent nation, with you as Emperor. But no, you can't just buy sovereignty like the deed to a house.

Good luck!

Answer 2

No, you can't. Really, what makes a small island different than, say, a large stretch of land in Alaska? What you want, in essence, is to become a nation of your own. For all intents and purposes, you can't.

Now, this is public international law we're dealing with, and as such a rather difficult matter already, but generally you would need a) territory, b) people and c) effective government, and then be accepted by other states.

People have tried this and usually failed. You can read up on it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronation

Answer 3

Yes if you have land you can declare it to be a sovereign State or township , you will have to meet the codes to supply your own government , police , fire dept. schools , power company because your current providers may be unable to provide outside their service area , police etc, will be out of jurisdiction , you would also have to provide your own waste treatment ,and disposal facility ,then come up with your own car tags if you do a state , and most insurance companies would not have a license to provide coverage in your State . But yes it is possible but the cost would be unimaginable this would be for the county land you already own , a private Island is possible which ever country you purchase it from . But probably not provide any service what so ever with no control of the island. you would have to allow others to inhabit your Island , start off with a republican government , so everyone will be able to afford to live there , once you get them in there ,switch to a democratic government so they will have to pay so much money they never could afford to leave..

Answer 4

Island sure, sovereignty no. How might you safeguard it? till you have your own battleship(different than a rowboat and a potato gun) or a militia(to boot your GI Joe collectible figurines) you will possibly under no circumstances be waiting to maintain yet another u . s . from overtaking it.

Answer 5

An island could be bought and not sovereignty because it could only be given by the people.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

I'm not a 14th amendment citizen!

Answer 8

you might build one, or a huge raft anyway.