Legal Pluralism, Indigenous People and Small Island Developing States: Achieving Good Environmental Governance in the South Pacific

2010 ◽  
Vol 42 (61) ◽  
pp. 171-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika J. Techera
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Legal Pluralism ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Small Island Developing States ◽  
The South

scholarly journals Law, land, development and narrative: a case-study from the South Pacific

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Farran
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Land Development ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Small Island ◽  
The South ◽  
Indigenous Land Rights ◽  
Indigenous Land

This article explores a primary source of legal studies, case-law, as a form of narrative in the context of indigenous land rights, and considers how this narrative negotiates pre-colonial land claims in a post-colonial context. Its case-study is the South Pacific island country of Vanuatu, a small-island, least-developed, nation-state, where laws introduced under Anglo–French colonial administration are still retained and sit uneasily alongside the customary forms of land tenure which govern ninety percent of all land in the islands. The article looks at the traditional and changing role of narrative presented as evidence by claimants and their witnesses against a context of rapid social and economic change, and asks whether the metamorphosis of narrative signals the future survival or imminent demise of customary indigenous land rights and what that might mean for these island people faced by the pressures of development.

scholarly journals Forget China: No Shark Trade in Tonga. Yeah Right

Te Kaharoa ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Teena Brown Pulu
Keyword(s):  
South Pacific ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pacific Islanders ◽  
First Century ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
The South ◽  
Debt Stress ◽  
The Government ◽  
Regional Engagement

In the South Pacific winter of 2013, Michael Brassington reported from Tonga that “China is now the South Pacific’s most valued VIP.”  The Australian journalist was interviewing Pesi Fonua, longstanding Tongan publisher who commented: “They are definitely calling the shots.  Whatever they want they can negotiate or take it.”  Referring to China, he ranked this regional power as a twenty first century precursor for South Seas debt, diplomacy, and indebtedness. By Fonua’s description China was the debt stress killer.  In 2014, Tonga would start repaying Chinese soft loans worth 40% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) spent on buildings, wharfs, bridges, roads.  Ordinary people in this small island developing state were worried the government might default on loan payments.  Then what would happen?  Would China own Tonga?  What have Pakeha New Zealanders’ perceptions of Pacific Islanders got to do with any of this?  Reconfiguring South Pacific relations with China as a contending power sparked off anxiety for the United States, Australian, and New Zealand governments.  The question was how did political unease shape strategies to control the region?  For Tonga’s national affliction of debt distress, did New Zealand’s regional engagement consider how an age old attitude towards Pacific Islanders weighed down this country’s excess baggage carried over from the 19th and 20th centuries, nudging them closer to China?

Searching for appropriate criminal evidence laws in the South Pacific

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-241
Author(s):  
Jennifer Corrin
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
The South ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Island States ◽  
Small Island States ◽  
The Common ◽  
The 19Th Century

Most island states in the South Pacific have inherited a common law legal system as a consequence of their colonial history. After independence only a few of these countries have been active in replacing or amending the inherited laws. In the field of evidence, many countries are still reliant on introduced statutes from the 19th century. Commencing with a brief outline of legal systems in the small island states of the South Pacific, this article moves on to identify the legislation which governs criminal evidence in a representative sample of countries from Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. It explains the complexities of this exercise in countries which still rely in whole or in part on legislation introduced during the colonial era. The article then moves on to discuss the application of the common law and the extent to which South Pacific courts have developed their own jurisprudence in this area. It considers how far these countries have come in developing their own rules of criminal evidence. The article concludes with a discussion of whether the prevailing criminal evidence laws are suitable for the circumstances of South Pacific island countries.

scholarly journals Influences of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on Rainy Season Precipitation for the Southernmost Caribbean Small Island State, Trinidad

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 707
Author(s):  
Nkese D. Mc Shine ◽  
Ricardo M. Clarke ◽  
Silvio Gualdi ◽  
Antonio Navarra ◽  
Xsitaaz T. Chadee
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Rainy Season ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
South Atlantic ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Small Island ◽  
The South ◽  
Island States ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Composite Maps

Seasonal rainfall in the Caribbean Basin is known to be modulated by sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and particularly those in the Equatorial Pacific and Atlantic and the Tropical North Atlantic. However, little is known about how these major oceans influence the seasonal precipitation of individual small island states within the region as climate variability at the island-scale may differ from the Caribbean as a whole. Correlation and composite analyses were determined using monthly rainfall data for the southernmost island of the Caribbean, Trinidad, and an extended area of global SSTAs. In addition to the subregions that are known to modulate Caribbean rainfall, our analyses show that sea surface temperatures (SSTs) located in the subtropical South Pacific, the South Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico also have weak (r2 < 0.5) yet significant influences on the islands’ early rainy season (ERS) and late rainy season (LRS) precipitation. Composite maps confirm that the South Pacific, South Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico show significant SSTAs in December–January–February (DJF) and March–April–May (MAM) prior to the ERS and the LRS. Statistical models for seasonal forecasting of rainfall at the island scale could be improved by using the SSTAs of the Pacific and Atlantic subregions identified in this study.

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