JPIL Vol 8 Issue 1/2 2017 - Article 2
A RE-AFFIRMATION OF THE NATION-STATE AND ITS TERRITORIAL SOVEREIGNTY: THE NEW WORLD ORDER?
David Lea
Abstract
With the rise of nationalistic parties in Europe, the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit phenomenon, apparent disenchantment with globalization has re-energised the importance of the concept of the sovereign Nation-State and its territorial integrity. To a degree it appears that nationalism and territorialism are back in demand. This Article explains why these developments do not necessarily reaffirm the relevance of the Westphalian system of international law. ‘Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.’ [J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring] ‘It's not given to people to judge what's right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong.’ [Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace ] Today, local economies are being destroyed by the ‘pluralistic, displaced, global economy, which has no respect for what works in a locality. The global economy is built on the principle that one place can be exploited, even destroyed, for the sake of another place. [Wendell Berry New Perspectives Quarterly (1992)]

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