Legal status of Gibraltar in international law

Margerita Jurkovič

Abstract

Gibraltar is an Overseas Territory under authority of the United Kingdom. It is denoted as a "non-self governing territory", but also as a territory of the "stateless nation". It is unique from political, legal, economic, strategic and other points of view. For three centuries it has been a centre of dispute between Britain and Spain. So far the dispute has largely been managed bilaterally, through negotiations between Spain and Great Britain. This has prevented the people of Gibraltar having an equal say on the issue of the locus of Gibraltar's sovereignty and realising their aspirations for decolonisation. It has produced a paradox of governance and constitutionalism that encases the Gibraltar people: on one side their right to self-determination has been acknowledged as a fundamental right and principle of contemporary international law while, on the other, their quest for possible independence has been conditioned by the will of the political authority of the other country (Spain).

Key words

Gibraltarians, Gibraltar, Spain, Great Britain, non-self-governing territory, stateless nation, right to self-determination, offshores, colonial people