Nationality and Citizenship in a Devolution Context: Australian and New Caledonian Experiences‪.‬

Unlike many Pacific Islands, which are of volcanic origin, New Caledonia is an ancient fragment of the Gondwana supercontinent which separated from Australia 85 million years ago. But Australia and New Caledonia have other common features, including the will to maintain a strong link with their respective motherland. Captain Cook himself personified this common European history: the rugged coastline of New Caledonia reminded him of Scotland, and he thus named it 'New Caledonia', which is the old Latin name for Scotland. The island became a French possession in late 1853, as a part of an attempt by Napoleon III to rival the British colonies in Australia and New Zealand. The island remained French with the consent of the British who needed a good relationship with France to stop the growth of Bismarck's Empire. Following the example set by the United Kingdom in Australia, France between 1864 and 1922 sent a total of 22,000 convicts to penal colonies along the south-western coast of New Caledonia. Towards the end of the penal colony period, free European settlers and Asian contract workers outnumbered the indigenous Kanak population, which was already declining drastically due to introduced diseases and violence. Today, the Kanak account for less than 45% of the population. In Australia too, the foundation of the colony of New South Wales marked by the landing of Captain Phillip in 1788 began a period of settlement by convicts that ended in 1868. Here, too, the indigenous population became vastly outnumbered. Both Australia and New Caledonia were under the sway of a European imperial power and they both progressively gained autonomy. However, the process of devolution in both cases is not similar. The Australian colonies achieved self-government from the mid-19th century in a movement that led to the creation of the Commonwealth in 1901. Thereafter, the international personality of the federation solidified gradually towards sovereignty which was formally and symbolically recognised in 1986 with the visit of the Queen to Australia to sign the Australia Act in person. (1) The progressive devolution is characterized by a series of Imperial Conferences that connote the consensual attitude of the UK towards its Empire. In France, however, the agreements with New Caledonian representatives were the result of bitter tensions, revolts, and violence and this generally reflects the lack of vision that France showed in the (mis)management of its own Empire. The process of devolution of powers from France to New Caledonia is currently under the scrutiny of the international community represented by the United Nations and, naturally, this was not the case with Australia. Today, New Caledonia enjoys a large measure of internal self-government but has yet to finalize with France the ending of its status as non-self-governing territory, as foreseen in the Noumea Agreement of 1998. Today, New Caledonia is an overseas territory of France. It is not officially called a 'territory': the Noumea Agreement of 1998, known as the 'Accord', (2) refers to New Caledonia as 'le Pays', that is, both a country and a nation. (3) Its history is, assuredly, more chequered than that of Australia. (4)