WORLD COURT ISSUES PROCEDURAL ORDER
CALLING FOR THIRD ROUND OF PLEADINGS

The Polynesian
October 2000

On July 17, 2000 and September 6, 2000, the Tribunal issued Procedural Orders no. 3 and no. 4, respectively, calling for an additional round of pleadings. The Orders have set September 30, 2000 as the due date for pleadings to be submitted by Ms. Ninia Parks, attorney for Mr. Lance Larsen, and November 14, 2000 for pleadings to be submitted by the Acting Council of Regency, serving as Agents for the Hawaiian Kingdom Government. The Tribunal also stated in the Orders that they are prepared to have an oral hearing at The Hague, when all parties agree to a specific date.

The third round of pleadings will address the jurisdiction of the Tribunal to hear the merits of the dispute without the involvement of the United States as a party to the proceedings.

On March 2, 2000, the Agent for the Hawaiian Kingdom had traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak with Mr. John Crook, legal adviser to the U.S. State Department. In that conversation the U.S. was invited to enter the arbitration at the World Court, but has since not joined in the proceedings.

A copy of the conversation was made a part of the record at the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

On November 9, 1999, arbitral proceedings were initiated by Mr. Lance Paul Larsen, by his attorney, Ninia Parks, Esq., against the Hawaiian Kingdom Government, by its Acting Council of Regency. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, is serving as the registry.

In court documents Ms. Parks alleges that the Acting Council of Regency is responsible for the protection of her client who is a Hawaiian subject (national) from the illegal actions of the United States government, and its political subdivision, the State of Hawai'i, and therefore liable for redress of those violations of her client's constitutional rights. The Hawaiian Kingdom Government acknowledges the violations, but disputes the liability.

Three of the foremost authorities on the laws of occupation have entered the case to serve as the arbitrators. Professor James Crawford, Queen's Counsel (Australia), and member of the United Nations International Law Commission, is the Chairman of the Arbitral Tribunal, together with Professor Christopher Greenwood, Queen's Counsel (England), and Mr. Gavan Griffith, Queen's Counsel (Australia). Professor Greenwood is the author of the 1999 United Nations Report on the Laws of Occupation, and Mr. Griffith was the former Solicitor General for the Australian Government.

On October 4, 1999, Mr. Larsen was imprisoned for thirty days, seven of which were solitary confinement, for adhering to Hawaiian Kingdom law. Mr. Larsen was cited and also arrested for driving his vehicle in the Hilo and Puna area without a license, license plate, safety check and registration. The licensing Statute on p. 616, Compiled Laws of 1884, does not require a license to drive private vehicles, but rather regulates only commercial vehicles in the district of Honolulu.

The United States cannot enforce its own laws in the occupied territory, but rather only the laws of the occupied country, the Hawaiian Kingdom.

The United States is not a necessary party to the dispute because these proceedings are not intended to end the occupation, but rather to expose the occupation and the legal impact it has between a Hawaiian subject and his government.

"Belligerent occupation, per se, does not extinguish the State. And generally, the presumption - in practice a strong one - is in favor of the continuance, and against the extinction, of an established State." Prof. James Crawford, QC, Creation of States in International Law, Oxford, 1979, p. 417

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