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founded
1967
location
7 miles off Essex coast, opposite to the mouth of River Orwell
population
low hundreds, current State Register of Residents is 25
history
The Principality of Sealand came into existence when Roy Bates took possession of an abondend military fort »Rough’s Tower« in the north sea. The fort was erected during second world war as an anti-air-craft gun base outside the territorial waters of Great Britain. Using a loophole in international law Roy was able to proclaim the independence of Sealand as a State. He minted gold and silver coins, issued passports, and printed a series of stamps in honor of Christo-pher Columbus, Sir Walter Raleigh and other great discoverers. The claim of sovereignty was consolidated by a court ruling in 1968 resulting in the quasi-recognition of Sealand by the UK.
Today the Principality hosts a number of industries, the most promi-nent perhaps being Havenco Limited, a company with its corporate and operational offices within the Principality itself. Havenco Ltd. provides geographically and legally secure hosting facilities for web-based servers.
The Principality emphasises compliance with its laws by all industries, ensuring that a balance of commercial opportunity and international law is achieved. Companies benefit from a constitutional right to take part in the legislative and consultative processes of government.
comment
The Principality of Sealand is probably the most well known micro-national project still in existence, and is clearly an independent State in every respect. It has reached a status of souvereignty unequalled in the history of such
undertakings. In the 60s we see a rise in »New Country« projects trying to achieve control of a tiny piece of territory either natural or artificial. This attempts included more oftenly a businessplan con-nected to commercial radio, gambling or financial activities. But none of these attempst were too succesfull to gain the control previously imagined. The only exception is Sealand.
In recent times the number of micronational projects has grown again, but this time the emphasise is rather on building a virtual entity which is highly organized and tries to aquire citizens as its most powerful argument. The question of souvereignty in the realm of the world wide web seems to be of no great relevance, at least not yet. Most of the participating micronations of the Amorph!03 summit are working along this line. It is therefore a great opportunity to wel-come The Principality of Sealand to the Amorph!03 summit to share their longstanding experience with the more recent micronational projects.
The Principality will contribute to Amorph with its establishment of a temporary European Embassy and a number of presentations concerning administrative and diplomatic issues relating to the establishment of Statehood in the International community.
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