Around 100 active micronations exist across the globe. Led by committed and eccentric individuals, these aspirant or wannabe states assert their claims to sovereignty in myriad ways. In dressing in the language of statehood, they challenge understandings of, and approaches to, international legal personality. In this article we provide the first legal survey of micronations. We develop a conceptual framework to understand what it means to be a micronation, explore their various forms, and analyze key public law issues. Our survey reveals that, although public law has not engaged with this phenomenon, states respond to the assertion of sovereignty by micronations in both benign and violent ways.
Australia's anti-corruption system needs reform. The diffusion of responsibilities across multiple agencies risks under-reporting of corrupt conduct, while gaps in the regime mean that the system fails to hold people accountable. As a result, community and public confidence in Australia's institutions is eroded. The solution is a national whole-ofgovernment anti-corruption body encompassing the public sector with the power to apply a uniform standard of corrupt conduct.
There has been a significant push in recent years for greater and more meaningful participation of refugees in decision-making processes that affect them. This push is identifiable in a range of international instruments, including the 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees, as well as numerous initiatives developed by refugees, civil society organizations, and international organizations at the local, national, and international level. This article considers the emergent drive for refugee participation from the perspective of both law and policy. It examines the evolution of the international legal framework, analysing the extent to which international refugee and human rights law mandate the inclusion of refugees in decisions that affect them. The article also explores the notion of participation in detail, teasing out several key challenges for consideration in the development of inclusive participatory processes. Drawing this material together, it explores two options that could further promote the moral, political, and ultimately legal authority for meaningfully including refugees in the design and implementation of policy. These options are indicators that establish baselines and track refugee participation in decision-making processes, and a new, non-binding United Nations declaration that clearly details the right of refugees to have some authority in decision-making processes that affect them.
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