Foreword

Abstract

A major issue for any settlement of a political conflict is the extent to which the principles of a given settlement should be maintained even if the contextual circumstances for the settlement are changing, and at worst are making the principles less relevant or even irrelevant. Autonomy legislation and other forms of formal regulations are not an exception to this problematique.

The present issue of JASS provides an update on legislative and political developments on the Åland Islands through a comparative study that examines the work of three distinct committees which form part of the ongoing revision process of the Autonomy Act within the Republic of Finland. The two entities – the Finnish state and the Åland Islands parliament – have earlier revised thoroughly, and on two occasions, the Autonomy Act, which was first installed in 1920 and expanded in 1922. The ambition on the islands is to update the legislation with the occasion of the centenary of the Åland Islands’ autonomy.

An important dimension of the Åland autonomous system, with its minority and identity related dimensions, is the regulation of the right to ownership of property. Few, if any, aspects of identity have such strong connotations to territoriality and security. It fits well in the context of autonomy revision to focus particularly on the right to property ownership and its development in recent times. In particular, it is interesting to study the difference, and maybe similarities, between a rights’ discussion based on international conventions on the rights of minorities, on the one hand, and the rights that the Åland Islands inhabitants enjoy – rights originally formulated long before the human rights system started to develop into its modern forms.