Browsing by Subject "authority"

Sovereignty plays a significant role in the governance, recognition and legitimisation of semi-autonomous jurisdictions. Since the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in the 17th century, sovereignty has played a role in global political and economic affairs, yet for overseas territories and semi-autonomous jurisdictions the lack of independent sovereignty can leave these territorial anomalies without a seat at the table. With technological advancements and the rise of globalisation, the flow of people, capital and information has never been higher. As capital moves across the globe at high speeds, issues of taxation and its regulation arise. This thesis explores Stephen Krasner’s framework of the four types of sovereignty in order to propose a fifth form of sovereignty: economic sovereignty. To introduce an understanding of sovereignty that does not require a jurisdiction to be an independent nation state in order to be recognised, represented and held accountable regarding global economic issues. By illustrating how semi-autonomous jurisdictions can develop a flexible and prosperous system of international participation that does not require full sovereignty, this thesis aims to explore how a new form of sovereignty could potentially aid in improving the global governance of tax regulation. By analysing the positives, negatives and compromises of statehood and sovereignty, it possible to explore sovereignty as a spectrum that falls outside traditional understandings of the nation-state which has the potential to open up new opportunities for international cooperation and communication. The ‘outcome explaining’ variant of process tracing was used for case selection where cases are chosen based on the outcome of a mechanism. As a result, the British Crown Dependencies and in particular the island of Jersey were used as the focus case study, alongside a comparative study of the literature. This thesis highlights the growing role of self-governing semi-autonomous jurisdictions on the global economic stage and finds that independent sovereignty should not be a required criteria in order for a territory to be a recognised stakeholder in international financial and tax governance.