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In a speech to the Corsican Regional Assembly, Emmanuel Macron proposed a constitutional text to build Corsican autonomy within the French State. France's President proposed a constitutional text to Corsica's elected representatives to build autonomy for the island "without any disengagement from the state". "It will not be autonomy against the State, nor autonomy without the State, but autonomy for Corsica and within the republic," he explained. Read more...

This blog symposium brings together a number of experts on territorial autonomy, most of whom participated in a workshop convened in June 2023 by the Åland Islands Peace Institute in cooperation with the Finland Institute in Berlin. The goal is to look at and discuss the theory, research methodologies, and practice of European and global territorial autonomy. Documenting some of the knowledge and the new ideas from this workshop allows us to share results at an early, and even experimental, stage of a still loose worldwide network of scholars. The network, and this symposium, include researchers from the fields of politics, comparative politics, international relations, and of constitutional, public law, and international law, all working within different theoretical and methodological traditions. Read all contributions here.

Greenland's lawmakers got their first look at a draft constitution that the autonomous territory could rely on if it comes to negotiating independence from Denmark. Greenland has been autonomous since 1979. The world's largest island, located in the Arctic some 2,500 kilometers from Denmark, has its own flag, language, culture and institutions, but still relies heavily on a Danish grant, which makes up a quarter of its GDP and more than half of its public budget. Read more...

The 2023 webinar of our Annual Webinar Series "Discussing World Autonomies" focuses on "Autonomous Island Regions, Indigenous Peoples, and Self-Determination: Insights from Greenland and New Caledonia". Maria Ackrén (Associate Professor in Political Science at the University of Greenland) and Elisabeth Alber (Senior Researcher at the Institute for Comparative Federalism, Eurac Research) discussed with Sergiu Constantin (Senior Researcher at the Institute for Minority Rights, Eurac Research) the particularities and similarities of the two case studies. You can watch here the recording of the webinar.

The 11th episode features ECMI's Senior Researcher Dr. Felix Schulte talking to Dr. Dawn Walsh about territorial autonomy as a solution to violent ethnic conflicts. Specifically, they look into the role of guarantee mechanisms and independent commissions in such arrangements. Dr. Dawn Walsh is an Assistant Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations, and Director of the Institute for British-Irish Studies at University College Dublin. She is also currently the holder of an Irish Research Council Laureate Award for her project 'Power-sharing and independent commissions in post-conflict societies'. You can watch here the recording of this episode.

The Åland Islands Peace Institute has developed an online college course on territorial self-governance using the Åland Islands as an example and case study. This is an interdisciplinary course that takes a broad perspective on discussions of self-governance, self-determination, multi-level governance and the rights of minorities. It addresses Åland’s self-governance, demilitarisation and adoption of neutrality, as well as the culture and language guarantees necessary for any language and culture. Additionally, it discusses the importance of territorial autonomy as a possible tool for conflict resolution, e.g. as a possible solution to ethnopolitical conflicts. The deadline for application is 2 September 2022. More information here.