Regarding this column:
I’ve recently learned that in 2021, two Australian legal academics, Harry Hobbs and George Williams, published the first scholarly work on micronations, Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty. You can obtain your own copy for only US$138.
If that’s a little too rich for your blood, they’ve also written a book for general audiences, How to Rule Your Own Country, more reasonably priced at only US$15 for the Kindle edition. I’m reading it now, and enjoying it quite a bit.
In the course of composing this post, I learned that there is a wiki specifically for micronations, MicroWiki.
MicroWiki is a genuine rabbit hole — some of these micronations have surprisingly detailed constitutions, their own currency designs, and decades of diplomatic history with other micronations. The academic treatment is long overdue honestly. People have been declaring sovereignty over everything from back gardens to unoccupied ocean platforms for years, and the legal questions around it are more interesting than they first appear.
This guy had an article in The Atlantic a few weeks ago. I am thinking of joining. You can create your own noble title and everything. Just don’t wear crocs.
Edit: it started as a joke during Covid but has become surprisingly sophisticated as noted above.