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On
Global Reform and International Normative Model Areas (Inma)
Posted Sept 2000. Latest Update April 2014. Author: Dr Neville
Yeomans - Psychiatrist, Barrister Written in 1974 for the
Australian Humanitarian Law Committee - revised 1976
Enablers'
comment: In this 1974
paper Neville Yeomans sets out his vision for a way for possible global
transition to a social life world centred on humane wellbeing and profound
respect for the Earth and all life-forms. Central is finding and evolving a
social place - a place for evolving an Inma or International Normative Model Area. Neville
envisioned this area as a vital precious social place - a place for people to
explore socio-healing ways, peacehealing, intercultural respect and mutual
nurturing. For
Neville, the healing starts with the most damaged and oppressed - the
indigenes and oppressed small minorities of the World. After searching the
World in 1962 asking the indigenes where this placemaking may wisely
emerge, the answer came back - Far North Queensland, Australia. This
paper scans 1,500 years - back a 1,000 years and forward 500. A brief note (Mental Health and Social
Change)
written in 1972 hints at Neville's evolving frameworks. His early stretching
of possibilities was the family therapeutic community Fraser House started as a small micro
example of an Inma in 1959. Neville
had engaged with the Aboriginal women of Central Australia and knew of their
use of the word ‘Inma’ meaning ‘a coming together’.
Phonetically ‘In Ma’ in
English it connotes ‘in the mother’. In the Uluru Cultural Centre
by architect Gregory Burgess, the space includes the Inma space – the
ceremonial gathering space of the women.
Neville,
depending on context would use the terms: o
Inter-family
Normative Model Area o
Inter-personal
Normative Model Area o
Intercultural
Normative Model Area o
International
Normative Model Area Neville
linked with other natural nurturers in evolving healing wellbeing networks
between indigenous and disadvantaged minorities - refer An Example of Enabling
Indigenous Wellbeing.
For
many, economic globalisation is right now concentrating and cementing
an inhumane global order of immense destructive power in the hands of a few.
The spirit in action of Inma is life-force towards a balancing global
integral humane transition. Inma in Far North Queensland
Australia has been evolving since
the 1950's.
Other papers on the Laceweb homepage provide
glimpses of the socio-healing action. On
Global Reform and International Normative Model Areas (Inma) By
Neville Yeoman What
is the role of international law, particularly cogent humanitarian norms, in
the development of experimental creative communities? (Editors
comment: 'cogent' - having the power to convince or prove; 'norm' - model or
standard; the average behaviour or performance for a group of people (from
Latin word meaning carpenter's square.) Falk,
an international lawyer of normative realist1 preferences, quotes the
philosopher Whitehead's view that in the well-marked transitions from one age
to the next, 'blind historical forces and powerful moral vision' combine to
produce the change; or again 'senseless agencies and formulated aspirations
co-operate in driving mankind from its old anchorage'2.
Many normative realists believe like others, that such a transition is now in
progress, and that 'international law and lawyers can play a significant
and beneficial role during the period of transition, but only if they become
sensitive to the wider process of change underway in international society
and more controversially, if they give self-conscious support to a set of
explicit world order goals that structure both the means and the end of
transition'3. As a useful historical
analogy to guide concepts of transition: 'The world order shift now underway
seems to be a reversal of the shift completed in the middle of the
seventeenth century by which time medieval Europe had given way to the modern
state system. The seventeenth century completed a long process of historical
movement away from non-territorial central guidance and towards territorial
decentralization whereas the contemporary transition process seems headed
toward non-territorial central guidance. By
central guidance is meant 'a capacity to administer critical interactions on
a planetary scale'. It is possible to identify some of the prefigurations of
the future in many elements of cultural expression and community activities
including 'the artists who often are the first to express the handwriting on
the wall'. It would seem to the present writer that small creative groups and
communities may better move through the transition period, and perhaps guide
others as International (or Intrapersonal) Normative Model Areas - INMA - if
they are aware of this environing contextual shift. The
global problem is approached aiming at a 'post-state system of world order
that is relatively more peaceful and just'. One can appreciate this aim 'for
a transitional or global consensus.... (to) provide the normative grounding
for a political movement dedicated to global reform' and this focus 'on an
overall objective of helping to formulate a world order ideology appropriate
to human needs and aspirations'. However, others have to act moved by the
'politics of desperation' arising from 'situations where deprivation is
acutely sensed'. With the search for equity and intense demands for justice
the formulated aspirations of the age emerge. Again,
the non-political side of involvement occupies the sentiments of humankind,
'the moral question is prior to the political questions'. Thus the ethical,
intuitive integral movement and its ethos are needed to provide a basis for
the more rational, ideological one of the normative realists (eds. ethos: the
fundamental and distinctive character or spirit of a social group, culture,
community, etc.). Supporting
this integrative movement the 'creative jurist (can) identify and contribute
to the transformation of one system of international law to another' (eds.
'jurist': 'a person who practises or is skilled in law'). The
quest is for the cogent 'spirit of the laws', not just the letter. There
is 'a beneficial option premised upon an affirmation of the wholeness of planet
and the solidarity of the human species', feasible on a non-violent populist
movement. The main initial focus towards such movement is
'education-in-action' by demonstrating the failure of the state system as the
cause of present frustrations. It would seem that this is the more activist
component of 'consciousness-raising', by which is meant 'a 'consensus as to
world order challenges and an acceptance of a (humane ) value orientation. The
single most relevant task is 'to develop a role for law in relation to a
credible strategy of transformation', thereby attempting to implement the aim
of normative realism. This concept insists that even on questions of national
security deference to the requirements of international law are essential.
'The underlying premise is that even the most powerful governments are
increasingly dependent on a framework of legal constraints that provide a
formulation for inter-governmental cooperation...persistent, serious
disregard of international law imposes two costs, domestic (endangered
polity) and global (endangered planet)'. The
'official lawlessness' of Vietnam and Watergate are ominous signs of the
first cost. These reinforce the ethos of the normative realists that 'if
something isn't worth doing legally it isn't worth doing'. The
second cost according to normative realists, the endangered planet
hypothesis, is that the norms, procedures, and institutions of the
international legal order, though imperfect and imprecise, warrant national
respect because they embody inherently desirable restraints on state policy.
They reduce the frequency and destructiveness of violence, but further 'the
endangered planet hypothesis argues that the state system is in its last
decades of existence. The question is not whether there will be a new
system of world order, but by what means will it be implemented - by
trauma or planned transition' Thus
'we need a set of values that can inform, a strategy of change. Again, one
may add that this must be complementary to an intuitive humanely facilitatory
ethos. The central feature of the normative challenge that is proposed rests
on an acceptance of human solidarity and all its implications, especially a
shared responsibility to seek equity and dignity for every person on the
planet without regard to matters of national identity or territorial
boundary'. It is this very solidarity which one may submit is the function of
the INMAs of the globe to expand and synthesise. Such a humane mutualistic
and 'spiritual' movement seems essential to provide the motivation for the
more political movement of the normative realists. Webster's
Dictionary defines a paradigm as 'a pattern, example or model'. In Falk's
discussion of paradigms he argues that the statist paradigm provided model
problems and solutions, and set boundaries on thinking by intellectual
taboos. A 'juridical revolution' is coming, which will dethrone the statist
paradigm (eds. 'juridical': 'of or relating to the administration of
justice'). When a system change occurs the model of reality in the old system
is no longer adequate and a paradigm shift results. Thus a new constellation
of beliefs, values and techniques guide the tackling of newly seen problems.
Such a paradigm shift has several characteristics. 'First, it is a mutation
rather than a series of increments. Secondly, it embodies a coherent
explanation of the entire agenda of problems relevant for a current
generation of practitioners. Thirdly, if cultural issues are involved then
the paradigm-shift will occur in many disparate fields of experience'. As
an alternative paradigm challenges the older one, beliefs previously ignored
or denigrated as deviant are now seen as dangerous and subversive knowledge.
Thus as a multi-polar state system replaced 'the authority of the Pope and
the spiritual unity of Christendom' Grotius'4 thesis on the law of
nations was banned for Roman Catholics from 1626 and so remained until 1899.
However, 'International law also performed a critical role in providing a
normative bridge between the spiritualist pretensions of the Middle Ages and
the statist pretensions of the Modern Era'. They also produced moderating
normative procedures as shared guidelines during the collapse of spiritual
unity. A
useful role for the international lawyer is to clarify the normative drift
and 'the array of plausible options'. Thereby a preferred option based on
human wellbeing and 'bioethics'5 could become probable if
credible strategies and tactics were discovered. In
the transition a confused 'aperspective'6 world of choice is open.
The first step is the reshaping of an 'integral consciousness'7
in a holistic direction. This derives inspiration from an ethical position of
human solidarity in a context of material scarcity. The way is prepared for
the paradigm-shift from statism to globalism. For an Inma one might parallel
a movement away from the socialism-capitalism conflict to the cooperation of
humane mutualism. 'We are now confronting a new transition that includes a
return to the defining attributes of the medieval concept of world order -
central guidance and non-territoriality. Of course the reversion is occurring
in a totally altered global setting'. This is characterised by 'the dominant
integrationist thrust of contemporary issues'. For the integralist mutual
self-guidance may rather be suggested as global yet personal, and based on a
faith in human harmony. 'Central guidance' may well be a distant event. During
the 'period of consciousness-raising that is now seriously getting underway'
statist geopolitics is a necessary 'minor premise' to avoid breakdown of the
state system until widely shared understandings can offer historically
plausible global guidance options. Meanwhile and into the future, the 'prime
world order imperative . . . is ecological, in the broadest sense of
interdependence amid scarcity (and) future synapses of transition' must be
non-territorial global bargains of survival. At
the same time 'utopography' provides models, which normative realists can
experiment with as transitional strategies. These can be implemented in
naturally occurring model areas providing INMAs for evaluation and support by
global theorists and researchers. With
'sovereignty, the root disabling attribute of the world order system' a
visionary though not utopian politics of transition may be the task of
normative realism. The
complementary development of what may be perhaps termed normative empathy and
compassion or humane realism, emphasises the apolitical humanitarian norms of
alternative law. The rural communes groping towards norms of cooperation and
mutual regard could be building this presently 'non-legal' law. It is
submitted that this moral and aesthetic normative system is essential to any
possible political legality arising. The
'mobility of ideas, people, things and the universality of holistic imagery
of the earth' excludes the long term survival of territorial parochialism
even without the changes of war. Paradigm-shift may well then be in the
context of largely peacetime pressures. The
lawyer (eds.: presumably, 'Falk') prefers an intermediate form of central
guidance involving 'a net increase in the capacity for global
administration'. This option includes tendencies for 'centralisation of
function control and planning to enable equitable allocation of scarce
resources and decentralisation of political structures combined with
localisation of identification patterns.' Four
types of world order options are discussed and illustrated. Each of these
constructs is examined according to its normative orientation and structure
of implementation (leverage). They
are appraised from these perspectives: 1.
Attainability - plausibility of
achieving sufficient structural leverage. 2.
Desirability - concordance of
likely operation with value priorities. 3.
Durability - likelihood of stable
global result. The
four types of option are: ·
World Government (Clark - Sohn
plan) ·
Concert of Great Powers (Nixon -
Brezhnev design) ·
Corporate Elites (Trilateral
Commission) ·
Global Populism (World Order Model
Project) The
utopian lack of transitional strategy of option A and its general unrealism
warrant little comment. Option B as discussed elsewhere8
is a statist 'law and order' central guidance of enormous moral and
ecological cost. Option C is illustrated by David Rockefeller’s
Trilateral Commission of U.S., European and Japanese business ultraelite.
Though conservative and 'not concerned with globalist solutions based on the
interplay of peace and justice considerations' it is important because it has
structural leverage, i.e. a forbidable transition capacity, aimed at a
transnational 'business-man's peace' backed by repressive police powers of
subordinate territorial politics. Its geoeconomic ideology and organisation
structure is the greatest challenge to the power of the nation-state since
the Roman Catholic Church began to decline in the 15 Century. Transnational
geoeconomic power is regarded by the normative realists as the most dangerous
to the development of an ultimate humane and just system, and therefore to be
actively opposed. It may be suggested that here, the role of organised
labour, and the global cooperation of unionists, is of prime importance. From
the viewpoint of an Inma, alternative transnational economic corporate
structures need to be developed. Tentatively the following suggestions under
consideration by one small proprietary company may be submitted9.
1.
All members of the corporation
have shares in it while they work for it. 2.
All are voting members. 3.
Voting power is in decreasing
proportion to shareholding. 4.
Share holding is in proportion to
salary. 5.
There are no non-employed
shareholders. However, there is a dividend ratio fund for present founding
members. 6.
Fifty percent of profits go to
transnationally oriented humanitarian and charitable organisations. 7.
If and when multinational status
is reached, the above clauses would equally apply in all countries. 8.
Until the achievement of clause
(7) 50% of profits in taxing overseas countries to go to clause (6)
organizations chosen by a multicultural, and transnational committee of which
half the members were from the country under consideration and themselves represented
clause (6 ) type organizations. 9.
Profits returned to Australia from
non-taxing countries to be included in clause (6 ) profits, but distributed
globally, to disadvantaged and developing regions. Such
a geoeconomic model is merely one of many which must be experimented with to
compete with the highly hegemonial 'cosmocorp'. Option
D requires a structural relevance based on the four value positions of peace,
economic equity, social and political justice, and ecological balance. Such
an option must have a credible strategy of transition consistent with
historical constraints to contribute to changing consciousness. As to option
D advocates, it is believed that 'they have a superior understanding of the
historical situation and an authenticity arising from their powerlessness;
the fact that their line of recommendations appears to have the best insight
into the wellbeing of. the human species and the viability of the planet is
also a source of political and moral strength'. A
genuine alternative problem-solving paradigm is seen in Myers McDougal's
concept of world public order based on human dignity. Despite its present
application in statist terms there is a receptivity to ecological and
futurist concern. In fact McDougal's personal political conservatism helps
hide the subversive anti-statist message - 'The message is helpfully
disguised by the medium'. But that message has to do with 'a processive,
value-oriented approach to norms that are appraised by reference to global
criteria'. As a new paradigm of international legal studies it must be
related to 'the agenda of concrete problems facing the human community. The
World Order Models Project attempts to carry what one may call McDougal's
anatomical and structural approach to process toward a more problem-solving
and value priority functionalism. This
design involves the conceiving of a three-stage transition process (T1-T3 ): Tl
= Consciousness-raising in national Arenas T2
= Mobilization in Transnational Arenas T3
= Transformation in Global Arenas This
results in construction of a Non-territorial Guidance mechanism based on a
global social contract. The new system is based on the performance criteria
(V1 - V4) of peacefulness, economic equity, social and political dignity and
ecological balance. The political organs have tripartite representation;
peoples, Non-government Organizations and governments. Surely one would here
add a fourth representation of individuals by global voting. 'On
the level of bureaucratic presence and loyalty attachments there is
envisioned by the end of T3 an outward mutation in terms of central
guidance and an inward mutation in terms of localism and subnational
autonomy, and participatory relevance' The
described emergent central guidance paradigm for international legal studies
included:
This
orientation to the juridical implications of the paradigm-shift suggests
subject-matters ripe for useful analysis:
The
global transition model of the normative realists has emphasised a credible
transition strategy in the move towards a more peaceful and just world.
However it is necessary to make such a strategy both meaningful and feasible
to persons and groups, and to underpin that world level analysis with
relevant application to individual communities. An attempt will be made to do
this in an Australian context by presuming the creation of an
Inma
in North Queensland. It
is submitted that T1 consciousness-raising, Tl (C - R) would occur firstly
among the most disadvantaged of the area, including the Aborigines. Thus human
relations groups on a live in basis could assist both the growth of
solidarity and personal freedom of expression amongst such persons. In initial experiences along this line the
release of fear and resentment against whites has led to a level of
understanding and mutual trust both within the aboriginal members and between
them and white members10. A mutual awareness of
humanness leads to the development not of a 'social contract' but rather of a
community agreement. In legal terms a legally enforceable social contract may
be contrasted with a morally enforceable, and perhaps in future a cogent
humane law agreement. The
next step could be focussing their activities on the Inma. This would be
accompanied by widespread T1 activities in the Inma, conducted largely by
those trained by previous groups. Aborigines
from all over Australia and overseas visitors would be involved as has begun.
Over a number of years the indigenous population of the Inma would be
increasingly involved, both black and white. Co-existing
with later T1 activity is a relatively brief C - R program with the more
reformist humanitarian members of the national community, i.e. largely based
on self-selected members of the helping and caring professions plus
equivalent other volunteers. However their C - R is mainly aimed at realising
the supportive and protective role they can play nationally, in guaranteeing
the survival of the Inma beyond their own lifetimes, rather than trying to
persuade them actually to join it by migration. (eds: The words 'them
actually' is the best fit - this segment of the sentence was difficult to
decipher on a poor copy) T2
has two subunits: T2 (a)
commences with the mobilization of extra-Inma supporters nationally. T2
(b) moves to the mobilization of transnationals who have completed T1 (C - R)
in their own continents. That mobilization is of two fundamentally distinct
types: T2
(b)(i) mobilization of those who will come to live in, visit, or work in, the
Inma. T2
(b)(ii) mobilization of those who will guarantee cogent normative, moral and
economic support combined with national and international political
protection for its survival. By
T3, the effects of T1 and T2 have largely transformed the Inma, which is now
a matured multipurpose world order model. Its
guidance and governance will be non-territorial in the sense that it extends
from areal to global. Politically
it is territorial, economically it is largely continental; in the
humanitarian or integral sense it is continental for Aborigines and partly so
in other fields, but it is largely global. T3
for the Inma is then nearing completion, while its ex-members who have
returned to their own continents are moving these regions towards the closure
of T1, the peak of T2 and the beginning of a global T3. This is perhaps
50-100 years away. By the time of the peak of global T3 humanitarian
consensus provides the integral base for development of a world nation-state
of balanced integrality and polity. World phase completion could perhaps be
200 years away. With
regard to the integral value systems of the Inma, the normative realists list
may be re-arranged thus: V1 - peacefulness Thus
peacefulness and harmony with both humans and nature is dominant over
economic and political values. The cultural mutation in that sense is
primary, the economic and political secondary. However
from the aboriginal point of view, V2 and V3 are somewhat primary over V1 and
V4 thus their mutation is both through the technological and humane era at
the same time. V4 is of particular relevance to the Inma. The so called
'Human Environment Revolution' is a growing ethos of alternative persons and
youth in Australia. Part of its ethic may be stated thus: 'Not until there is
health and harmony in all our landscapes can there be humanity and common
sense in the society of man'11. Their concern is with
man cooperating with the amenity of Nature rather than in opposition to it.
They wish to 'build an environment of humanity and healthy balance as a demonstration
of living' and the only way to solve 'the problems of the sick landscape or
the inhumanity of society'. Thus
their ethos involves an ecasocial unity related to the normative realists'
'ethics of global concern'. Three
types of positive Futures have been distinguished as normatively realistic: o
Survival o
Development o
Transcendence By
the end of Inma T3 its own survival will be long since guaranteed. Its
development will be well advanced both in terms of governance and of
economies. Economic development is essentially towards a balance of
exploitation and conservation, with recreation of renewable resources. Wide
diffusion of economic well-being and economic influence counters its power
centralization. Shared ownership and control of production and distribution
of economic resources works this diffusion. Transcendence
could be flourishing in the Inma towards the elaboration of new global
integration symbolic ritual. Multicultural global art, ceremonial and
interpersonal rituals would be in continuous experimentation. Ultimate global
spiritual and aesthetic values, norms and symbols would grow from this
continuing transcendental experimentation. Turning
to the ethics and ideology of Inma people; it is axiomatic that for a
life-style and value mutation to occur in an area such territory needs to be
in a unique combined global, continental, federated state and local
marginality. Globally it needs to be junctional between East and West12
at least geo-graphically and in historical potentiality. At the same time at
all levels it needs to be sufficiently distant from the centres of culture
and power to be unnoticed, unimportant and autonomous. Thus
in ideological terms it is believed that Buddhism grew at the junction of
North Indian decline, with the changing Aryan culture. Christianity, an
integrative 'love' ethos flourished in reaction against, and at the margin of
a decaying Roman military Empire and an already decayed and withdrawn
post-Gupta Indus Valley Empire and its Persian Gulf outposts. More violently
Islam blossomed between the exhaustion of the Turkish Empire of the time in
its incessant and continuous conflict with the West. At
a subcontinental or national level the unified state of China arose as did
much of Chinese innovation, on the lower Western foothills of China. This is
at the junction of the largest alluvial plain in the world, with the drier
less predictable hinterland. Thus the surrounding nomads and the settled
agriculturalist clashed and created cultures. That classical structure, the
Great Wall and the many lesser walls of China run geographically along the
exact isohyetals dividing the areas in which crops were not certain and safe,
from the regular rainfall of the core Chinese agricultural states. The
ethical and moral Taoist theory of governance and its contrasting
revolutionary Confucian idea of administration based on merit and
examinations, arose from the anarchy and bureaucratic imperatives of the vast
Chinese plain, during the period of the Warring States. Tao is integrative,
democratic and humane, Confucian organization is differentiated, hierarchical
and rational. Both were needed for that vast step forward to a unified
subcontinental state, the Central Kingdom. Both great protagonists Lao Tzu
and Confucius moved as nomadic, margin men between the many states. The
osmosis of Lao Tzu absorbed and synthesised the needed ethos. Confucius
worked as a bureaucrat in many of the states, and drew his creative
conclusions. Yet neither was a ruler of his time. Again
at a later and national level Mao Tse Tung's final political and economic
syntheses and successes originated at the junction of Russian and Chinese
culture in Shenshi. Here was a revolution not in the cultural sense, but more
in the techniques of industrializing a subsistence society. He was an
economic and political revolutionary primarily. His creative voluntarism
mobilised a majority oppressed by authoritarian war lords. But culturally, he
is a classicist. He has purified Chinese culture not revolutionised it. Even
his poems are in the classical style. At
the level of geopolitical technique he excelled. In 1954 he wrote: o
Revolutionary activity should be
concentrated in areas of previous political or revolutionary activity. o
Political stability at both the
local and national level should be weak or lacking o
The location must have access to
major political targets. o
Zones of weak or confused
political control provide ideal havens. Such zones are usually at the
confluence of several provincial or national boundaries. o
Terrain must be favourable for
military operations. o
In so far as possible the areas
must be economically self-sufficient. Once
established, the base should not be abandoned except under the most critical
of circumstances'13. Mao thereby spelt out
the marginality techniques of political revolution. These were pursued in
relation to intra- and international marginal zones in McColl's article in an
effort to define areas to be preempted by the U.S.A. in preventing
revolution. At
an individual level, perhaps the following graphic description best
summarises of the marginal person. 'Individuals whom life casts into the
interfaces of social change go because they must, because they hurt, and
because they believe. There are inexorable movers and shakers as well as the
pawns of history'.14 The preceding outline of
revolutionary movements reminds one that factors of history and geography are
basic. Political and economic factors then circumscribe and implement
utilitarian revolutions. However for a humanitarian mutation, empathic,
ethical and aesthetic charisma is of the essence. It is the integral system
that circumscribes and implements such change, not the utilitarian. Thus
in Mao's writing one might substitute 'cultural' for 'political', and in
clause (5) for 'military'. Also the various territorial levels, from global
to personal must be propitious in humane rather than power terms. Is
a 'distinct human unit', an Inma 'entity',15 plausible at this time?
Is it credible for North Queensland, Australia? It
is submitted that a new law-making 'Church' is the Red Cross at the global
level. It seems in relative equilibrium with a new 'State', the United
Nations. Humanitarian law is in the ascendance in relation to the disarray of
utilitarian law. The exquisite inconclusiveness of the Law of the Sea
Conference at Caracas Venezuela, 1974 perhaps illustrated this. By contrast
mediational law16 is more influential than
for centuries. Decentralised horizontal law challenges positivist autocratic
vertical law17. Culturally Australia is
an infant. It is the outpost of a static European culture separated from its
cultural source by a resurgent Asian ethos - and Papua New Guinea statehood.
It is caught between East and West, North and South. Regionally it is
influenced by and attracted to the Association of South-East Asian Nations
(A.S.E.A.N.). This body is less than a decade in existence18
was initiated in 1967 by Indonesia, still its main driving force. Of regional
organisations it has been exceptional. Its aims are fundamentally
humanitarian. It is concerned with educational and cultural exchange; and with
mutual assistance and cooperation in development projects. It has studiously
avoided power politics or any connection with defence alliances or
military-oriented bodies such as SEATO. In fact, so far (1974) there has been
no conference on defence or military aspects held by ASEAN; though this may
change this year19. Parliamentary
cooperation also may develop20, while relief of
economic shortages by mutual cooperation is being considered.21
The announcement that 'A.S.E.A.N. - Australian economic cooperation has taken
off at a fast pace (by) Australia's acting High Commissioner'22
in Kuala Lumpur indicated an economic approach to Australia. Nevertheless the
core unity of ASEAN is essentially socio-cultural. Thus large numbers of
teachers have been sent to Malaysia from Indonesia, while artistic exchange
is frequent. The cultural and educational influence and support of ASEAN
would be invaluable and plausibly forthcoming to an adjacent Inma in North
Australia. The
racial, cultural and community affinities of Torres Strait Islanders and
others with Papua New Guinea are obvious. Cultural, not to mention informal
migratory exchanges are increasing. For example one ex-West Irian leader has
explored the geography of the region, resulting in enlightened comments. At
the intra-national level North Queensland is more distant from Canberra than
from its Melanesian and Asian neighbours. This even applies intra-state with
the extra-ordinary geography of Brisbane at the extreme Southern end of the
state. Regional offices of government and in fact all bureaucracies are
growing by force of distance. From
the preceding description it would appear plausible that an Inma could find
the necessary pluri-level marginality, autonomy and potential balance of
influences in the region discussed. The other side of the change, an economic
and political infrastructure, may now be referred to. It
is submitted that the essential prerequisite to financial and political
support for the Inma could be a political polarisation between South
Queensland power and the Australian Government. North Queensland Self
Government would then become useful Common-wealth tool to use against
Brisbane. In
an initial crucial group, Aborigines, the then Minister for Aboriginal
Affairs announced in September 1974, that moneys previously directed through
the Queensland State Government would from now on go directly to Aboriginal
organisations.. He stated that the more money given to the state, the worse
the Aboriginal position was becoming. At
about the same time the Australian Government announced a legislative intent
to give Queensland's Aborigines ownership of their settlements at then under
State control. This was claimed by the Premier of Queensland to be
unconstitutional, and may well lead to a High Court suit. Thus
as the political crisis grows the North Queensland Self-Government League's
activities have gathered a steadily more cogent normative influence. In
August 1972, its Steering Committee completed and placed before the
Queensland Premier a quarto booklet of 38 pages as a submission for an
independent state within the Federation23. Not surprisingly no
action has yet been taken by the State Government. However statistics
separately published on the Northern Division of Queensland by the government
are now no longer available. In 1972 the then chairman of the League, a
University Professor, told the Charters Towers Chamber of Commerce that: 'The
economy of North Queensland and that of the remainder of Queensland are now
so neatly balanced that self-government for the North can be affected without
disturbing the relations of either territory with the other'24.
With an area of approximately 700,000 kilometres, the region has a population
of 335,000 people. These are more evenly spread than any other area in
Australia. The Steering Committee was stated to have recommended a Parliament
of 30 members in a single House with a Cabinet of 7. Ministries would be
decentralised in the five major towns in the area. Economically
in all sectors bar the 'tertiary', the areal productivity and profitability
is greater than South Queensland. Annual consolidated revenue of the whole
state was $564,000,000 in 1971-72, i.e., $309 per head. Separating out the
proportionate Inma revenue the results give $349 per head. Thus the Inma on
separation would have an immediate benefit of $40 per head. As
a first step a parliamentary Committee of Inquiry with Royal Commission
powers was recommended. Later, an Inma referendum is to be held to ascertain
the people's wishes. The
Committee was to consist of three; one nominated by the Queensland government
one by the Commonwealth and one by the League. It is submitted that instead,
the Australian government could be approached. An Inquiry and Referendum
Commission of four is suggested. The additional member would be an aboriginal
representative, resident or born in the Inma and nominated by the National
Aboriginal Consultative Committee, perhaps in its self-chosen National
Aboriginal Council role. Even
if no Queensland government representative were nominated the Commission
could proceed with fact finding and research surveys. It could also conduct
an Inquiry on Aboriginal autonomy in the area. The
present impasse between the League and the State government would strongly
motivate the former to consider alliance with the Aborigines. The similar
State-Federal impasse could motivate the latter to support a new state
movement, if merely to embarrass the present Queensland regime. This could
happen without any initial belief in the success of a new state movement. As
to the legal system in the Inma, it seems clear that on a multicultural
basis, a minoritarian constitution is necessary. By giving specific
representation to different racial, ethnic and other groups it has an
equalizing effect. Again
the question of a dual constitution must be considered. Principles of
humanity and those of utility could be separated. The constitution would
build on the steps taken by India, Pakistan and Burma25.
The initial step of creating humanitarian 'directive principles of state
policy' as a separate Part of the Indian Constitution are of great
significance26. Being 'fundamental to
the governance of the country',27 they embody the objects
and aspirations of the state and guide its law-making activity.
Constitutional Human Rights are another area of consideration, and like all
laws in a multicultural community will require wider conceptualization in
social context. Again, choice-of-law criteria require a broad basis of
experience in different legal systems28. In this regard the
experience of Lawasia is unique. Formed in 1966, by 1969 it had about 1300
individual lawyer members from about 20 countries in the Asian and Pacific
region29. A consultative
committee of this body could be invaluable, in the legal structuring of the
Inma. Ultimately Lawasia might assist in the development of a humane
multicultural court. The circuit concept of domestic law could be
internationalised to provide an international pool of judges. Such persons
from cultures or countries represented by ethnic inhabitants in the area
could be invited to become visiting members of the court, and active at least
on cases involving their own ethnic issues. This would be rather like the use
of a national judge of each party concerned, in the International Court of
Justice (I.C.J.) Again
ex-judges of the I.C.J., known for their particular humane and global values
such as is Tanaka J. of Japan30 could be employed in
Full Court cases. Likewise judges of specialised skill, or suitable academics
such as Professor Hahm of Korea31 could be used as
visiting judges if they were so willing. Past members of the International
Law Commission could also be approached Certainly, if one were to pursue the
obedience of international humanitarian norms, especially in relations
between Inma and the South Queensland, Australia or Papua-New Guinea
governments, the use of a multicultural court would be advisable. Thus may a
'domestic' court convert ideals of humanity and of justice into normative
realism32. Lawasia might assist
greatly in the development of such a multijural court even to nomination and
selection of members. There is yet a further opportunity if the multijural
court came into existence. Such an institution could offer a service to all
types of disputants, individual, corporate or state in the Asia, Pacific and
Australian region. Unlike the International Court of Justice it would not be
shackled to inter-state disputes only, and could itself become a valuable
model for study and evaluation. It
may be noted that in terms of Aboriginal economic development and autonomy
multi-lateral finance resources might be tapped. The
Asian Development Bank (A.D.B.) is the main regional resource. It was
conceived by the U.N. Economic Commission for Asian and the Far East (ECAFE)
and is located in the region33. About 60% of its
capital is subscribed by 22 regional countries, and 8 of the 12 Directors
come from its area. Membership includes Indonesia, Papua-New Guinea and
Australia. The
A.D.B. is an international development finance institution established for
objectives which include: o
To promote investment in the ECAFE
region of Public and private capital for development purposes. o
To utilize available resources for
financing development.... o
To cooperate with...national
entities whether public or private... The
lending activities of the A.D.B. include direct loans to both public and
private entities and enterprises operating within its developing member
countries, but it does not finance any undertaking in the territory of a
member if that member objects to such financing. Technical assistance is also
given, and Special Funds independently administered include an Agricultural
Special Fund, a Multi-purpose Special Fund and a Technical Assistance Special
Fund. Application
might perhaps be made by the Aboriginal Assembly representing all Aboriginal
interests in the Inma. For example the Aboriginal Cooperative Ltd. owns
property South of Cairns. A request to assist the development of an
Agricultural Training Centre could be in line with the type of project the
A.D.B. supports. Thus
failure of support by an Australian government might result in an application
by Inma as an Associated State of Australia. As a developed country, the
latter would not receive a loan, but Inma Aborigines would argue that they are
a disadvantaged developing people within the Territory of a Member of the
A.D.B. The minimal result might well be considerable U.N. and A.D.B.
influence, moral and economic, on Australian financial sources to make major
assistance available. Finally
reference might be made to the recently formed Islamic Bank. An ethnic group
of Indonesians or other Moslems in the INMA might well warrant an approach to
such an organisation at some future date. Some
of the structural possibilities of an Australian Inma have been examined in
this essay. Whether the requisite paradigm-shift will activate these
opportunities and whether a true cultural mutation can germinate, remains to
be seen. Endnotes
1
Falk, R. A., 1974. Law and National Security: The Case for Normative
Realism Utah Law Review., No. 1, p.25 at 34. 2 Falk, R. A., 1974. Beyond International Relations
Mimeographed Lecture to Australian National University. September. 1974.
Princeton University. 3 Falk, R. A., 1974. The Sherrill Hypothesis,
International Law and Drastic Global Reform: Historical & Futuristic
Perspectives June. Princeton University. 4 Falk, R. A., 1983. The End of World Order: Essays
of Normative International Relations New York: Holms & Meier, p. 25 -
32. 5 Van Rensselaer Potter, 1971 Bioethics: Bridge to
the Future. 6 Gebser, J., 1972. The Foundations of the
Aperspective World Main Currents Vol. 29, p. 80. at p.81 7 Gebser, J., 1973. The Integral Consciousness
Main Currents Vol. 30, p. 107. 8 Falk, R. A., 1974(d). What's Wrong With Henry
Kissinger's Foreign Policy 9 Private communication to the writer. 10 Iceton N. (Ed), 1971 - 1976 Aboriginal Human
Relations Newsletter University of New England, Armidale, NSW. 11 Yeomans P. A. 1976. The Australian Keyline Plan for
the Enrichment of Human Settlements United Nations Conference, Habitat
Forum, Canada. Yeomans
P. A. 1971. The City Forest: The Keyline Plan for the Human Environment
Revolution. Keyline Publishing. P. 10. 12 Parkinson, C. N., 1963 East and West Mentor
Books. 13 McColl, R., 1967. A Political Geography of
Revolution: China, Vietnam and Thailand Journal of Conflict Revolution,
Vol. 11, No. 2, p. 153. 14 Nieburg, 1969. Violence, Law and the Informal
Polity Journal of Conflict Resolution Vol. 13., p. 192 at p. 208. 15 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of
Justice on the Question of Spanish Sahara Objective: Justice Vol. 7, No.
4, 14, at p.17. 16 Carlson, J. & Yeomans, N., 1975 Whither Goeth
the Law - Humanity or Barbarity, in The Way Out - Radical Alternatives in
Australia Eds. Margaret Smith and David Grossley, Melbourne: Landsdowne
Press, p. 155 17 Barkun, M., 1968. Law Without Sanctions at p.
16 18 Indonesian News Letter, 1974. Embassy of
Indonesia, Canberra, No. 26, at p.1. 19 The New Standard (English language
Newspaper), 1974. Jakarta: August, 26. 20 Indonesian News Letter, 1974. Embassy of
Indonesia, Canberra, No. 24, at p.4. 21 Indonesian News Letter, 1974. Embassy of
Indonesia, Canberra, No. 25, at p.3. 22 The New Standard (English language
Newspaper), 1974. Jakarta: August, 22, p.2. 23 North Queensland Self Government League -
Submission (1972). Townsville 24 North Queensland Register (local paper) 12
September 1972. 25 Smith, D. The New Commonwealth and its
Constitutions (1964) at p. 173. 26 Coper, M., 1969. The Definition of Law and the
Directive Principles of the Indian Constitution. Jaipur Law Journal, Vol.
9., p. 1. 27 Constitution of India, Article 37. 28 Chin Kim, 1971. The Korean Choice-of-Law Rules
Lawasia, Vol 2, p.96. 29 Wooten, J., 1969. Lawasia Lawasia Vol.1 p.14
at p.19. 30 Schubert & Danelski, 1969. Comparative
Judicial Behaviour p. 139. 32 Falk, R. A., 1964. The Role of Domestic Courts in
the International Order 33 Asian Development Bank - Basic Information
(1971) Manila, Philippines. Mental Health and Social
Change
Whither Goeth the Law -
Humanity or Barbarity
An Example of Enabling
Indigenous Wellbeing
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