Below is the video of Dr. Keanu Sai’s presentation on his recent chapter “Hawai‘iʻs Sovereignty and Survival in the Age of Empire” published by Englandʻs Oxford University Pressʻ Unconquered States: Non-European Powers in the Imperial Age in December of 2024.
Below is the video of questions and answers of Dr. Keanu Sai following his presentation.
Dr. Keanu Sai, a graduate of the Kamehameha Schools Kapālama campus in 1982 has been invited by Kamehameha Schools Ka‘iwakīloumoku Pacific Indigenous Institute, in partnership with Kanaeokāna, for a presentation on March 5, 2025, with questions and answers to follow about his recent chapter “Hawai‘iʻs Sovereignty and Survival in the Age of Empire” published by Englandʻs Oxford University Pressʻ Unconquered States: Non-European Powers in the Imperial Age in December of 2024. No registration is required for this free public in-person event and light refreshments to follow.
The public is encouraged to attend because Dr. Saiʻs presentation will get into the operational plan for transitioning the State of Hawai‘i into a military government of Hawai‘i and the impact it will have on the population of Hawai‘i, e.g. health care, land, taxes, cost of living. The session will be recorded and uploaded on Kanaeokana’s website.
The session will be recorded and uploaded on Kanaeokana’s YouTube channel.
Tomorrow will be the official book launch of Unconquered States: Non-European Powers in the Imperial Age published by England’s Oxford University Press in December of 2024. Dr. Keanu Sai is a contributor of a chapter in the book titled “Hawai‘i’s Sovereignty and Survival in the Age of Empire.” In his chapter Dr. Sai
In his chapter, Dr. Sai covers: the legal and political history of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the evolution of governance as a constitutional monarchy, the unlawful overthrow of the government by United States troops in 1893, the prolonged American occupation since 1893, the restoration of the government of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1997 by a Council of Regency, and the recognition of the continued existence of the Hawaiian Kingdom, as a State, and the Council of Regency, as its provisional government, by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague, Netherlands, in the 1999-2001 international arbitration case Larsen v. Hawaiian Kingdom. He concludes his chapter with:
Despite over a century of revisionist history, “the continuity of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a sovereign State is grounded in the very same principles that the United States and every other State have relied on for their own legal existence.” The Hawaiian Kingdom is a magnificent story of perseverance and continuity.
THE EVENT WILL BE LIVE STREAMED ON FACEBOOK STARTING AT 3:30pm HI TIME
On KITV Island Life Live yesterday, Dr. Keanu Sai talks about his recent chapter titled “Hawai‘i’s Sovereignty and Survival in the Age of Empire” in a book Unconquered States: Non-European Powers in the Imperial Age. The book was published by Oxford University Press in December of 2024. Be sure to download Dr. Sai’s chapter by clicking the link above.
On KITV Island Life Live yesterday, Dr. Keanu Sai explains the American invasion of the Hawaiian Kingdom and its unlawful overthrow of the government on January 17, 1893. This began a prolonged occupation that is now at 132 years.
On January 4, 2025, Pascal Lottaz, a Professor for Neutrality Studies at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study, (Waseda University), in Tokyo, posted a review of Dr. Keanu Sai’s chapter on Hawai‘i’s Sovereignty and Survival in the Age of Empire in Professor H.E. Chehabi and Professor David Motadel’s book Unconquered States: Non-European Powers in the Imperial Age published by Oxford University Press.
Oxford University Press (OUP) has made it official that the American occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom is the longest occupation in modern history that began in 1893. It was previously thought that the longest occupation in modern history was the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem that began in 1967.
The significance of OUP’s publication of Unconquered States: Non-European Powers in the Imperial Age, with a chapter written by Dr. Keanu Sai titled “Hawai‘i’s Sovereignty and Survival in the Age of Empire” is that Hawai‘i was never the 50th State of the American Union but rather an occupied State under international law with its rights and obligations intact despite the prolonged nature of the occupation. What was defeated or overthrown, albeit illegally, was the government of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893, and not the Hawaiian Kingdom as a State, which is also referred to as the country.
Dr. Sai’s chapter reconnects the Hawaiian Kingdom to Great Britain, not the United States, when it became a British Protectorate in 1794 under the reign of King Kamehameha I. In 1843, Great Britain recognized the Hawaiian Kingdom as a sovereign and independent State, which ushered in the Hawaiian Kingdom into the Family of Nations. Dr. Sai then explains the connection to the United States by an invasion of U.S. Marines on January 16, 1893, which led to the unlawful overthrow of the Hawaiian government and its unlawful seizure of the Hawaiian Islands during the Spanish-American War in 1898. To be conquered is for the Hawaiian Kingdom to have transferred its sovereignty and territory to the United States by a treaty of cession.
There is no such treaty that exists except for the unlawful imposition of American laws, which is the war crime of usurpation of sovereignty during military occupation. Dr. Sai explains under international law why the Hawaiian Kingdom continues to exist as an occupied State under international law, which the Permanent Court of Arbitration acknowledged in 1999, in Larsen v. Hawaiian Kingdom. The PCA not only acknowledged the Hawaiian Kingdom’s continuity as a State, but also recognized the Council of Regency as its provisional government during the occupation.
Dr. Sai was one of 23 academic scholars from around the world that was invited to write a chapter on a non-European State that was not conquered under international law. If Dr. Sai’s chapter had no historical or legal basis, OUP would not have allowed the chapter to be published. This is a cornerstone of academic research where a scholar does not argue a position in their research, but rather provides historical and legal evidence that cannot be refuted. In this sense, the scholar is subject to a scientific approach where a scholar’s findings and conclusions are open for rebuttal by other scholars who serve as reviewers. This is called peer review in the academic world where opinions have no place. OUP states in the book, “Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.”
Only when the American occupation is recognized worldwide can the occupation come to an end by a treaty of peace. OUP is added leverage to bring compliance to the law of occupation or the criminal culpability that ensues if the State of Hawai‘i is not transformed into a Military Government to administer the laws of the occupied Hawaiian Kingdom.
Dr. Keanu Sai was invited to do a podcast interview by Professor Pascal Lottaz on the subject of the American occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom, a Neutral State. Professor Lottaz is an Assistant Professor for Neutrality Studies at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study in Tokyo. He is a also a researcher at Neutrality Studies, where its YouTube channel, which airs their podcasts, has 153,000 subscribers worldwide.
With Oxford University Press (OUP) upcoming release, on December 30, 2024, of Unconquered States: Non-European Powers in the Imperial Age with a chapter by Dr. Keanu Sai on the Hawaiian Kingdom and its continued existence as a State despite having been under a prolonged American occupation since 1893, it will make it official that Hawai‘i is the longest occupation in modern history. Previously, it was thought that the longest occupation was Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem that began in 1967.
The reach of OUP is worldwide. In all its publications it states “Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford, Auckland, Cape Town, Dar es Salaam, Hong Kong, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Nairobi, New Delhi, Shanghai, Taipei, and Toronto. With offices in Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Chile, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam.”
Dr. Sai’s chapter has effectively pierced the false narrative that has plagued Hawai‘i’s population and the world that Hawai‘i is an American state, rather than an occupied State. The Hawaiian Kingdom’s continued existence as an occupied State is not a legal argument but rather a legal fact with consequences under international law. Dr. Sai concludes his chapter with:
Despite over a century of revisionist history, “the continuity of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a sovereign State is grounded in the very same principles that the United States and every other State have relied on for their own legal existence.” The Hawaiian Kingdom is a magnificent story of perseverance and continuity.
With the world knowing about the American occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom it will assist in facilitating compliance by the Hawai‘i Army National Guard with the law of occupation so that the American occupation will eventually come to an end by a treaty of peace.
On December 30, 2024, Oxford University Press will be releasing a book titled Unconquered States: Non-European Powers in the Imperial Age. The editors of the book, Professor H. E. Chehabi from Boston University and Professor David Motadel from the London School of Economics and Political Science, invited 23 scholars from around the world to contribute their scholarship. Dr. Keanu Sai is the author of chapter 21—Hawai‘i’s Sovereignty and Survival in the Age of Empire.
Here are the reviews:
“This is an ingenious collection, a book on international history in the 19th and 20th centuries that really does, for once, “fill a gap.” By countering our simple assumption that the West’s imperial and colonial drives swallowed up all of Africa and Asia in the post-1850 period, Chehabi and Motadel’s fine collection of case-studies of nations that managed to stay free—from Abyssinia to Siam, Japan to Persia—gives us a more rounded and complex view of the international Great-Power scene in those decades. This is really fine revisionist history.”—Paul Kennedy, Yale University
“This is an excellent collection of scholars writing on an important set of states, which deserve to be considered together.”—Kenneth Pomeranz, University of Chicago
“Carefully curated and with an excellent introduction that provides an analytical frame, this book offers a global history of “unconquered” countries in the imperial age that is original in its perspective and composition.”—Sebastian Conrad, Free University of Berlin
“The book offers an insightful comparative analysis of political forms and relationships in non-European countries from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. The “non-conquered states” of Asia and Africa are show as sometimes resisting and but often accommodating in innovative ways European political forms and military and diplomatic techniques. The particular appeal of the essays lies in their effort to bring to the surface and critically assess the indigenous histories and struggles that enabled these political formations, each in their own way, to respond to the challenges of modernization. This is global history at its kaleidoscopic best.”—Martti Koskenniemi, University of Helsinki
Oxford University Press is the gold standard for academic publishing in the world and to have the untold story of the Hawaiian Kingdom and its continued existence under an American occupation is a monumental feat for the Council of Regency’s strategic plan under Phase II—exposure of Hawaiian Statehood. Dr. Sai is not only a Hawaiian scholar and political scientist, but he is also Chairman of the acting Council of Regency.
When the government of the Hawaiian Kingdom was restored in 1997, as an acting Council of Regency under Hawaiian constitutional law and the legal doctrine of necessity, it approached the prolonged American occupation with a strategic plan that entailed three phases:
Phase I: Verification of the Hawaiian Kingdom as an Independent State and subject of international law where a reputable international body must verify the continued existence of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a State.
Phase II: Exposure of Hawaiian Statehood within the framework of international law and the law of occupation as it affects the realm of politics and economics at both the international and domestic levels. Phase II will focus on individual accountability and compliance to the law of occupation.
Phase III: Restoration of the Hawaiian Kingdom as an independent State and a subject of international law, which is when the occupation will come to an end by a treaty of peace.
On November 8, 1999, international arbitration proceedings were initiated at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, in The Hague, Netherlands, in Larsen v. Hawaiian Kingdom, PCA Case no. 1999-01. At its website, the PCA described the dispute as:
Lance Paul Larsen, a resident of Hawaii, brought a claim against the Hawaiian Kingdom by its Council of Regency (“Hawaiian Kingdom”) on the grounds that the Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom is in continual violation of: (a) its 1849 Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation with the United States of America, as well as the principles of international law laid down in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969 and (b) the principles of international comity, for allowing the unlawful imposition of American municipal laws over the claimant’s person within the territorial jurisdiction of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Before an arbitral tribunal could be established by the PCA, it had to determine that the dispute was international, which meant the Hawaiian Kingdom had to be an existing State under customary international law. Once the PCA recognized the continued existence of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a State and the Council of Regency as its government, it then had to determine whether the Hawaiian Kingdom was a Contracting State or Non-Contracting State to the 1907 Hague Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes (PCA Convention) that established the PCA.
The reasoning for this determination was that Contracting States, which includes the United States, did not pay for the use of the facilities because they contributed yearly dues to maintain the PCA. Non-Contracting States had to pay for the use of the facilities. The PCA recognized the Hawaiian Kingdom as a Non-Contracting State under Article 47 of the PCA Convention. The PCA established the arbitral tribunal on June 9, 2000. To understand this case you can go to pages 24-27 of the ebook Royal Commission of Inquiry: Investigating War Crimes and Human Rights Violations Committed in the Hawaiian Kingdom.
The PCA’s recognition of the continued existence of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1999 satisfied Phase I. Since then, Phase II was initiated and continued when Dr. Sai entered the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 2001 to acquire an M.A. degree and a Ph.D. degree in political science specializing in international relations and law. According to Dr. Sai:
The Council of Regency needed to institutionalize, and not politicize, the legal and political history of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a State under international law and its continued existence today. This would be done by academic research and publications that will normalize the fact of the American occupation. From this premise, we could move into compliance to the law of occupation where the occupation will eventually come to an end by a treaty of peace. This was the most viable approach to a revisionist history that has been perpetrated for over a century.
November 28th is the most important national holiday in the Hawaiian Kingdom. It is the day Great Britain and France formally recognized the Hawaiian Islands as an “independent state” in 1843, and has since been celebrated as “Independence Day,” which in the Hawaiian language is “La Ku‘oko‘a.” Here follows the story of this momentous event from the Hawaiian Kingdom Board of Education history textbook titled “A Brief History of the Hawaiian People” published in 1891.
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The First Embassy to Foreign Powers—In February, 1842, Sir George Simpson and Dr. McLaughlin, governors in the service of the Hudson Bay Company, arrived at Honolulu on
business, and became interested in the native people and their government. After a candid examination of the controversies existing between their own countrymen and the Hawaiian Government, they became convinced that the latter had been unjustly accused. Sir George offered to loan the government ten thousand pounds in cash, and advised the king to send commissioners to the United States and Europe with full power to negotiate new treaties, and to obtain a guarantee of the independence of the kingdom.
Accordingly Sir George Simpson, Haalilio, the king’s secretary, and Mr. Richards were appointed joint ministers-plenipotentiary to the three powers on the 8th of April, 1842.
Mr. Richards also received full power of attorney for the king. Sir George left for Alaska, whence he traveled through Siberia, arriving in England in November. Messrs. Richards and Haalilio sailed July 8th, 1842, in a chartered schooner for Mazatlan, on their way to the United States*
*Their business was kept a profound secret at the time.
Proceedings of the British Consul—As soon as these facts became known, Mr. Charlton followed the embassy in order to defeat its object. He left suddenly on September 26th, 1842, for London via Mexico, sending back a threatening letter to the king, in which he informed him that he had appointed Mr. Alexander Simpson as acting-consul of Great Britain. As this individual, who was a relative of Sir George, was an avowed advocate of the annexation of the islands to Great Britain, and had insulted and threatened the governor of Oahu, the king declined to recognize him as British consul. Meanwhile Mr. Charlton laid his grievances before Lord George Paulet commanding the British frigate “Carysfort,” at Mazatlan, Mexico. Mr. Simpson also sent dispatches to the coast in November, representing that the property and persons of his countrymen were in danger, which introduced Rear-Admiral Thomas to order the “Carysfort” to Honolulu to inquire into the matter.
Recognition by the United States—Messres. Richards and Haalilio arrived in Washington early in December, and had several interviews with Daniel Webster, the Secretary of State, from whom they received an official letter December 19th, 1842, which recognized the independence of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and declared, “as the sense of the government of the United States, that the government of the Sandwich Islands ought to be respected; that no power ought to take possession of the islands, either as a conquest or for the purpose of the colonization; and that no power ought to seek for any undue control over the existing government, or any exclusive privileges or preferences in matters of commerce.” *
*The same sentiments were expressed in President Tyler’s message to Congress of December 30th, and in the Report of the Committee on Foreign Relations, written by John Quincy Adams.
Success of the Embassy in Europe—The king’s envoys proceeded to London, where they had been preceded by the Sir George Simpson, and had an interview with the Earl of Aberdeen, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, on the 22d of February, 1843.
Lord Aberdeen at first declined to receive them as ministers from an independent state, or to negotiate a treaty, alleging that the king did not govern, but that he was “exclusively under the influence of Americans to the detriment of British interests,” and would not admit that the government of the United States had yet fully recognized the independence of the islands.
Sir George and Mr. Richards did not, however, lose heart, but went on to Brussels March 8th, by a previous arrangement made with Mr. Brinsmade. While there, they had an interview with Leopold I., king of the Belgians, who received them with great courtesy, and promised to use his influence to obtain the recognition of Hawaiian independence. This influence was great, both from his eminent personal qualities and from his close relationship to the royal families of England and France.
Encouraged by this pledge, the envoys proceeded to Paris, where, on the 17th, M. Guizot, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, received them in the kindest manner, and at once engaged, in behalf of France, to recognize the independence of the islands. He made the same statement to Lord Cowley, the British ambassador, on the 19th, and thus cleared the way for the embassy in England.
They immediately returned to London, where Sir George had a long interview with Lord Aberdeen on the 25th, in which he explained the actual state of affairs at the islands, and received an assurance that Mr. Charlton would be removed. On the 1st of April, 1843, the Earl of Aberdeen formally replied to the king’s commissioners, declaring that “Her Majesty’s Government are willing and have determined to recognize the independence of the Sandwich Islands under their present sovereign,” but insisting on the perfect equality of all foreigners in the islands before the law, and adding that grave complaints had been received from British subjects of undue rigor exercised toward them, and improper partiality toward others in the administration of justice. Sir George Simpson left for Canada April 3d, 1843.
Recognition of the Independence of the Islands—Lord Aberdeen, on the 13th of June, assured the Hawaiian envoys that “Her Majesty’s government had no intention to retain possession of the Sandwich Islands,” and a similar declaration was made to the governments of France and the United States.
At length, on the 28th of November, 1843, the two governments of France and England united in a joint declaration to the effect that “Her Majesty, the queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and His Majesty, the king of the French, taking into consideration the existence in the Sandwich Islands of a government capable of providing for the regularity of its relations with foreign nations have thought it right to engage reciprocally to consider the Sandwich Islands as an independent state, and never to take possession, either directly or under the title of a protectorate, or under any other form, of any part of the territory of which they are composed…”
This was the final act by which the Hawaiian Kingdom was admitted within the pale of civilized nations. Finding that nothing more could be accomplished for the present in Paris, Messrs. Richards and Haalilio returned to the United States in the spring of 1844. On the 6th of July they received a dispatch from Mr. J.C. Calhoun, the Secretary of State, informing them that the President regarded the statement of Mr. Webster and the appointment of a commissioner “as a full recognition on the part of the United States of the independence of the Hawaiian Government.”
A country’s economy, according to Investopedia, “is the total of all activities related to the production, sale, distribution, exchange, and consumption of limited resources by a group of people living and operating within it.” The economy of the Hawaiian Kingdom is a mixed economy based on Francis Wayland’s theory of economics and not Adam Smith’s version that promoted the theory of laisse faire, which is letting the market take its own course.
At the center of Wayland’s theory was the introduction of morality into capitalism. Wayland was a Baptist minister and taught political economy at Brown University. In 1839, he published Elements of Political Economy that was an alternative to Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. According to Professor Mykkänen, Wayland was interested in “defining the limits of government by developing a theory of contractual enactment of political society, which would be morally and logically binding and acceptable to all its members.” William Richards, a former missionary and advisor to King Kamehameha III, taught courses at Lahainaluna to the high chiefs of the kingdom on government reform and economics.
In stages of the classes, Richards translated into the Hawaiian language sections of Wayland’s Elements of Political Economy in 1838. By 1839, he completed the sections, and it was published into a book titled No Ke Kalaiaina, which means carving of the land. From the premise that governance could be formed and established to acknowledge and protect the rights of all the people and their property, it was said to follow that laws should be enacted to maintain a society for the benefit of all and not the few. Richards asserted, “God did not establish man as servants for the government leaders and as a means for government leaders to become rich. God provided for the occupation of government leaders in order to bless the people and so that the nation benefits.”
Hawaiian currency was backed by silver at par with the United States currency backed by silver. Hawaiian coinage that was circulated since 1883 included umi keneta—one dime, hapaha—one-quarter dollar, hapalua—half dollar, and akahi dala—one dollar.
In 1876, the Hawaiian Legislative Assembly enacted a statute that from 1877 “gold coins of the United States of America shall be the standard and a legal tender in this Kingdom in all payments of debts, at their nominal value,” as well as “silver coins of the United States shall be a legal tender at their nominal value in payment for all debts within this Kingdom.”
This statute also provided that gold and silver coinage “bearing the legalized impress of any Sovereign State, shall also be receivable in payment of Government dues, duties and taxes, at the exchequer, and in tender or payment of debts contracted by private individuals and payable in this Kingdom, at their value as fixed by the King in Privy Council and published by the Minister of Finance.” In other words, their value will be according to the exchange rate for the Hawaiian dollar and the American dollar.
According to Professor Feilchenfeld, in his 1942 book titled The International Economic Law of Belligerent Occupation, he states:
The law of occupation affects many phases of life. Among them are numerous aspects such as the treatment of educational institutions, the occupant’s attitude towards criminal and administrative laws, and the treatment of the law courts of the occupied state.
The comparative importance of economic aspects and, consequently, the comparative relevance of international economic within the law of belligerent occupation, are indicated by the fact that eleven of the fifteen articles of the Hague Regulations on occupation are exclusively concerned with economic questions. Purely economic provisions are contained in Articles 46-56. Article 42 and 43 of the Regulations deal with general problems affecting both economic and non-economic interests. Only Articles 44, 45 and part of the first paragraph of Article 46, are devoted to interests which are clearly non-economic.
As an independent State, the Hawaiian Kingdom entered into extensive treaty relations with a variety of States establishing diplomatic relations and trade agreements. Its treaty partners include Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Bremen, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hamburg, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway, Switzerland and the United States. None of these treaties were terminated. On the subject of international treaties during an illegal occupation, Professor Benvenisti states:
The UN Security Council often reminds states of their obligation to regard such acts as legally invalid. States must therefore, for example, refrain from signing new treaties with such regimes. But this caveat contains its own caveat: the illegality of the occupant’s measures should not adversely affect the population subject to its rule. States must therefore confine their reactions to the illegality to their direct relations with the occupant, while at the same continue to maintain existing treaty-based relations that benefit the local population.
On the subject of public and private interests under the law of occupation, Professor Feilchenfeld explains that under “the doctrine Rousseau-Portales, war is directed against sovereigns and armies, not against subjects and civilians. This doctrine, which was recognized during the nineteenth century, governs the Hague Regulations.” He goes on to state that under “another legal dogma of the nineteenth century, the Doctrine of Vested Rights, private property of inhabitants is protected against confiscation.”
Black’s Law dictionary defines vested rights as “a right complete and consummated, and of such character that it cannot be divested without the consent of the person to whom it belongs, and fixed or established, and no longer open to controversy.” Since land reform was initiated in 1845, the Hawaiian Kingdom recognized the legal doctrine of vested rights. Specifically, §825 of the Hawaiian Civil Code states, “The several courts, in the decisions, shall have due regard to vested rights.”
The law of occupation provides for the maintenance of the status quo ante of the occupied State’s institutions, legal order and territorial integrity, but also protects the rights of the population of the occupied State. What makes the American occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom unique or sui generis is not an occupying State’s compliance with international humanitarian law that maintains the status quo ante, but rather its defiance of the law in pursuit of American military interests. Since 1893, the United States denied the application of the law of occupation by acting through puppet regimes it installed and illegally annexed the territory of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1898 during the Spanish-American War.
At the time of South Africa’s occupation of Namibia, the latter was not at the time a sovereign and independent State. It was a mandate territory assigned to the administration of South Africa in 1920 after the First World War. The League of Nations determined that colonial territories of Germany and Turkey would be assigned to member States so that they can foster the mandate of these territories to eventually become a sovereign and independent State. Instead of adhering to the mandate, South Africa treated Namibia as one of its provinces.
Since it was a mandate territory it came under the authority of the United Nations who became the successor to the League of Nations. This prompted actions to be taken by the United Nations, on behalf of Namibia. In 1969, the United Nations Security Council called on South Africa to withdraw and called its actions in Namibia legally invalid. In 1971, the International Court of Justice, in its Namibia Advisory Opinion, affirmed the United Nations’ authority over Namibia and demanded the withdrawal of South Africa.
The Court also “found that States Members of the United Nations were under an obligation to recognize the illegality of South Africa’s presence in Namibia and the invalidity of its acts on behalf of or concerning Namibia, and to refrain from any acts implying recognition of the legality of, or lending support or assistance to, such presence and administration.” South Africa withdrew its forces from Namibia in 1989. The following year in 1990, Namibia became an independent State.
Since the Hawaiian Kingdom achieved its independence in the nineteenth century, there is no requirement, like in the case of Namibia, for the United Nations to intercede on its behalf. Its continued existence as a State and its sweeping effect of sovereignty is a matter of customary international law. As the International Court of Justice, in the Lotus case, explained:
Now the first and foremost restriction imposed by international law upon a State is that—failing the existence of a permissive rule to the contrary—it may not exercise its power in any form in the territory of another State. In this sense jurisdiction is certainly territorial; it cannot be exercised by a State outside its territory except by virtue of a permissive rule derived from international custom or from a convention [treaty].
The permissive rule the Court referred to is Article 43 of the 1907 Hague Regulations and Article 64 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, that mandates the occupant to establish a military government to provisionally administer the laws of the occupied State until there is a treaty of peace. For the past 131 years, there has been no permissive rule of international law that allows the United States to exercise any authority in the Hawaiian Kingdom, which makes every act stemming directly from its authority unlawful and void.
This places the Council of Regency at the center because it alone, as the government of the occupied State, can legally change what is unlawful and void to become lawful under Hawaiian Kingdom law and the doctrine of necessity. The transformation of the State of Hawai‘i into a Military Government of Hawai‘i will need the cooperation of the Council of Regency to transition from an American economy that international law renders unlawful and void, to a Hawaiian economy based on Wayland’s theory of cooperative capitalism and regulated under Hawaiian Kingdom laws and administrative measures.
Under the law of occupation, the Military Government of Hawai‘i would not incur the debt of the State of Hawai‘i and the Counties. In 2022, the State of Hawai‘i debt was $8.52 billion, and its County debt was $7.87 billion. This debt is based on American law and administrative measures, which is the war crime of usurpation of sovereignty during military occupation. What the Military Government of Hawai‘i would incur is the debt of the Hawaiian Kingdom, which would be the loans of money to the Hawaiian Kingdom government by the issuance of Hawaiian Kingdom bonds since 2013.
In other words, the Military Government of Hawai‘i will be operating on the current budget of the State of Hawai‘i and Counties without having incurred any debt, except for the Hawaiian Kingdom’s debt. The revenues for the budget would have to be realigned under Hawaiian Kingdom laws and administrative measures. For those lenders that loaned money to the State of Hawai‘i or those who purchased State of Hawai‘i bonds, retrieval of their investments would be a matter for the United States federal government and not the Hawaiian Kingdom.