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Relationship between Political and Economic Self-Determination. * The Faeroese Case

ARNI OLAFSSON Advisor on Faeroe Islands Affairts to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

1. Basics about the Faeroe Islands

The Faeroe Islands are an archipelago of 1400 sq km, lying in the North East Atlantic Ocean between Britain, and Iceland. The population is approx. 44,000. About one third of the population lives in the capital, T6rshavn. The others are scattered in a hundred small towns, villages and settlements in 17 of the 18 islands. The Faeroese regard themselves as a distinct people or nation, with their own language, history, traditions, institutions, sense of unity and national identity. Seen in the context of the total Kingdom of Denmark, the Faeroese - like the Greenlanders - can legally and statistically be viewed as a national minority. However, for all political and practical purposes that is not the appropriate way to look at it. The Faeroese are themselves the overwhelming majority within their own geographically well-defined territory: The Faeroe Islands. To a considerable extent, that will also be true of the Greenlanders. Whether the Faeroese qualify for the term "indigenous peoples" may be discussed in another context. The Faeroe Islands have autonomy within the Kingdom of Denmark. Au- tonomies form a very varied category. We shall in the following take a closer look at the Faeroese case. One can ask, why the Faeroe Islands are constitutionally connected with far-away Denmark. That is the result of a specific historical development.

* Opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not represent official views of Faeroese or Danish authorities. 466

2. Historic Background

The Faeroese descend from settlers who came from Norway in the viking era, 11-12 centuries ago, replacing a settlement by Irish hermits, and established an independent society, with its own popular assembly with legislative and judiciary functions: the Alting, later known as the Logting. In the middle ages, the Faeroe Islands came under the of Norway, which at that time embraced all the North Atlantic: A number of islands now parts of Scotland, The Faeroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. In the 14th century the king of Denmark became also king of Norway. Gradually all power in the two Kingdoms was centralised in the royal city of Copenhagen. The personal union lasted until after the Napoleonic wars, when the king of Sweden took over the Norwegian crown. However, what was left of the Norwegian kingdom in the Atlantic Ocean: Faeroe, Iceland and Greenland, remained under the Danish king. In the middle of the 19th century - under the influence of the rise of the ideas of democracy and of Danish and German nationalism - the transnational conglomerate of countries and provinces ruled by the absolutist Danish king was transformed. The wholly or partly German-speaking provinces were integrated into the emerging German nation state, while Denmark proper in 1849 adopted a constitution which made it a democratic Danish nation state. In this turbulent process of transformation of Denmark from a transna- tional dynastic to a modem-day nation state, the three atlantic provinces went through different developments in their constitutional links with Denmark. Greenland continued to be ruled as a traditional type colony until it was for- mally integrated into Denmark through a revision of the Danish constitution in 1953. Greenland got home rule in 1979. Iceland step by step became independent of Denmark and emerged as a full-fledged republic in 1944. After the introduction of the democratic constitution in 1849, the Danish elected assembly decided to extend the constitution to the Faeroe Islands, thereby formally integrating the islands into Denmark. The Faeroese people were not asked. This act initiated a democratic process which reduced the power of the roy- ally appointed officials and abolished the colonial-type royal trade monopoly. However, when the nationhood idea spread from Denmark to the Faeroe Islands, the Faeroese found themselves as having been incorporated into another people's nation state. A national movement was formed, following the usual pattern, starting with collecting folk-songs, but soon becoming