Liberland, officially the Free Republic of Liberland, is a micronation claiming an uninhabited parcel of disputed land on the western bank of the Danube, between Croatia and Serbia. It was proclaimed on 13 April 2015 by Czech libertarian politician and activist Vt Jedlika.[3][9]

The official website of Liberland states that the nation was created due to the ongoing CroatiaSerbia border dispute,[10][11][12] in which some areas to the east of the Danube are claimed by both Serbia and Croatia, while some areas to the west, including the area of Liberland, are considered part of Serbia by Croatia, but Serbia does not claim them.

The size of the land in question is 7km2 (2.7sqmi), or roughly the same as Gibraltar. It has been administered by Croatia since the Croatian War of Independence.[13]There has been no diplomatic recognition of Liberland, although it has established relations with Somaliland (also unrecognized).[14][15] The land lacks infrastructure and lies on a floodplain.[16][17]

The dispute regarding the border along the Danube River valley first arose in 1947 but was left unresolved during the existence of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It became a contentious issue after the break-up of Yugoslavia. Serbia holds the opinion that the thalweg of the Danube valley and the centre line of the river represents the international border between the two countries. Croatia disagrees and claims that the international border lies along the boundaries of the cadastral municipalities located along the riverdeparting from the course at several pointsreflecting the course of the Danube which existed in the 19th century before meandering and hydraulic engineering works altered its course. As a result, Croatia claims a large part of the disputed area controlled by Serbia, while Serbia does not claim the much smaller parts controlled by Croatia.

Jedlika says that the land he has claimed, known as GornjaSiga (meaning upper tufa), was not claimed by either side.[3][9][11]

The area is about 700 hectares (1,700 acres), about the same size of Gibraltar, and most of it is covered with forests. There are no residents. A journalist from the Czech newspaper Parlamentn listy who visited the area in April 2015 found a house that had been abandoned for about thirty years, according to people living in the vicinity. The access road was reported to be in a bad condition.[18]

The Danube, an international waterway with free access to the Black Sea for several landlocked nations, runs along the self-proclaimed territory.

The flag raising in Gornja Siga was performed by Vt Jedlika and some of his associates on the same day the republic was proclaimed.[19][20] Jedlika is a member of the Czech Party of Free Citizens, which bases its values on the classical liberal ideology.[11]

Jedlika stated that no nation claims the land as its own and he therefore could claim it using the terra nullius doctrine. The border, he argued, was defined in accordance with Croatian and Serbian border claims and did not interfere with any other state's sovereignty.[3] Jedlika said in April 2015 that an official diplomatic note would be sent to both Croatia and Serbia, and later to all other states, with a formal request for international recognition.[21]

On 20 April 2015, Jedlika delivered a lecture at the Prague School of Economics, titled "Liberland how a state is born" (Czech: Liberland jak vznik stt). He discussed various aspects of the project and the interest it has attracted around the world. One topic that he brought up was the Montevideo Convention; he explained that Liberland intended to satisfy the principles of the convention, which is commonly used to define a state. At the time of the lecture, the Liberland project had assigned ten people willing to handle foreign relations.[22] Other topics covered in the lecture included the concept of voluntary taxation and how the large number of citizenship applications had made it necessary to restructure the citizenship process to be more effective, since it was only based on an e-mail account.[22]

On 18 December 2015, Jedlika held an event at which he presented the first provisional government of Liberland and its ministers of finance, foreign affairs, interior and justice as well as two vice presidents.[23]

The flag consists of a yellow backdrop (symbolizing libertarianism) with a black stripe running horizontally through the centre (symbolizing less government, anarchy/rebellion) and the coat of arms in the centre.[24][25] Within the coat of arms, the bird represents freedom, the tree represents prosperity, the blue river represents the Danube River, and the sun represents happiness.[26]

This section needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (June 2018)

Croatian authorities have frequently blocked access to the area since the beginning of May 2015.[27][28]

In May 2015, Vt Jedlika and his translator Sven Sambunjak were briefly detained by Croatian police after making an attempt to cross the border. Jedlika spent one night in detention and then was convicted and ordered to pay a fine for illegal crossing of the Croatian border[29] but appealed the verdict. He claimed that there were at least three Liberland citizens inside the area, who came from Switzerland.[30][31][32][33] Later that month, Vt Jedlika was detained again.[34] Initially, reporters were able to enter the area with Jedlika[18] but subsequently they were also denied entry, including journalists from the Serbian public broadcast service Radio Television of Vojvodina,[35] and from the Bosnian newspaper Dnevni avaz.[36]

The detained were from various countries, including Ireland, Germany, Denmark, and the United States.[28] Croatian police have continued detaining people, including those that entered the area by boat (via an international waterway).[37][38][39] One of them, Danish activist Ulrik Grssel Haagensen, was placed in house arrest for 5 days before being sentenced to 15 days of prison, triggering some protests in Denmark.[40][41]

In May 2016, several appeals court decisions from Croatia were published. The court upheld that crossing into Liberland from Croatia is illegal, but found the convictions for entering Liberland from Serbia improper. The court said that the lower court committed "a fundamental breach of misdemeanour proceedings" and "essential procedural violations". It further ruled that "the facts were incorrectly and incompletely established [by the prosecutor] which could lead to misapplication of substantive law". A retrial was ordered in 6 of the 7 appeals. The lower court is required to determine the location of the border and the border crossing.[42]

Journalists have been uncertain as to how serious Jedlika is about his claims, with some calling it a publicity stunt.[43][44]

In an interview with Parlamentn Listy in April 2015, Jedlika claimed that he had received positive reactions for his initiative, mainly from his own party, the Party of Free Citizens, for which he was a regional chairman,[45] but also from some members of the Civic Democratic Party and the Pirate Party.[19]

On 20 May 2015, Petr Mach, the leader of the Party of Free Citizens, expressed support for the creation of a state based on ideas of freedom, adding that the Party of Free Citizens wants the Czech Republic to become a similarly free country.[46]

Dominik Stroukal from the Czech-Slovak branch of the Ludwig von Mises Institute wrote: "The escapade succeeded for Vt. The whole world reports about Liberland with words like 'tax competition', 'libertarianism', etc."[47]

Goran Vojkovi, professor of law and columnist from the Croatian news portal Index.hr, described Liberland as a "circus which threatens Croatian territory", and argued that there was a risk that Croatia's claim to control land on the other side of the Danube may be weakened by the attention that the Liberland project has drawn to the border dispute.[48]

In 2016, an article in Stratfor summarized the initiative as follows: "Liberland is a curious case because, in principle, none of the actors that could claim control over it seems interested in doing so. But this will probably remain a curiosity with negligible consequences at the international level. For the rest of the world's disputed territories, violence and diplomacy will remain the main tools to claim ownership."[49]

Legal experts in both Serbia and Croatia have said that, under international law, Jedlika lacks the right to claim the area, which is currently the subject of a dispute between the two nations.[27][50][51] Croatia and Serbia have dismissed Jedlika's claims as frivolous, although the two countries have reacted in different ways. On 24 April 2015, the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that while they consider the affair a trivial matter, the "new state" does not impinge upon the Serbian border, which is delineated by the Danube.[52] Croatia, which currently administers the land in question, has stated that after international arbitration, it should be awarded to Croatia or Serbia, not to a third party.[53]

An article in the Chicago Journal of International Law, the law review of the University of Chicago Law School, examined Liberland's claim to statehood in light of the criteria laid out by the Montevideo Convention. According to the author, "Croatias insistence that Liberland is part of Serbia could constitute a renunciation of Croatias legal rights to Liberland. Conversely, if the territory that Liberland claims as its own is Serbian, the Serbian governments renunciation of its title to that land could also be a quitclaim that would transform the legal status of the land to terra nullius. In both instances, the territory would belong to the first entity in this case Liberland to claim it. However, because of the complicated history of the Croatian-Serbian border region, it may be difficult to ascertain who the land belongs to under international law."[54]

An article in the Michigan Journal of International Law argues that the United Nations should recognize Liberland.[55]

A government with ten to twenty members has been suggested for the administration of Liberland, to be elected by electronic voting.[19] Liberland intends to operate on an open-border policy.[19] The goal of the micronation, as claimed by its website, is to create "a society where righteous people can prosper with minimal state regulations and taxes".[19][21] The founders are inspired by countries like Monaco and Liechtenstein.[21]

Liberland has published a draft version of a codified constitution[56] and a list of laws to be included in the constitution. These documents describe Liberland as a country governed under a three-power system with executive, legislative and judicial sectors that seek to promote individual rights, including property rights, freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms. It has also a list of criminal offences, which include "polluting environment", "public nuisance" in addition to crimes such as murder, manslaughter and theft.[57] There are plans for an official cryptocurrency called Merit,[58] although all other currencies would be allowed.[19] There will be a maximum of 700 million merits.[59]

In an attempt to gain recognition at the UN, Liberland appointed 70 representatives in over 60 countries within a year of proclamation.[60] As of February 2018, Liberland had recruited over 100 representatives in over 80 countries.[61]

According to its official web page, Liberland is currently looking for people who have respect for other people and their opinions, regardless of their race, ethnicity, orientation, or religion, have respect for private ownership which is untouchable, and have not been punished for past criminal offences.[6] Liberland received 200,000 applications in a week.[62] In the beginning of May 2015, Liberland accepted around thirty citizens. An event was supposed to take place in the claimed territory, but Croatian border police stopped the group from entering it from the Croatian side. An attempt to cross the river with fishing boats from Serbia failed because the local fishermen didn't have permits for transporting people with their boats. Serbian police informed Jedlika that anyone trying to cross the border illegally would be arrested. An improvised ceremony was instead held in Baki Monotor.[63]

On 16 February 2018, United States politician and former candidate for U.S. Presidency Ron Paul was officially presented with a Liberland passport and citizenship certificate by Jedlika and his cabinet.[64][65]

Jedlika initially offered "Liberland citizenship" for 10,000 merits, equivalent 1:1 to USD,[66][16] but later reduced it to 5,000.[6] There will be a cap of 140,000 citizenships.[59]

There has been no diplomatic recognition of Liberland by any member of the United Nations. However, Liberland has established relations with Somaliland, a self-declared state that proclaimed its independence from Somalia in 1991. Liberland and Somaliland signed a Memorandum of Understanding in September 2017 vowing to establish closer relations and cooperate in the areas of technology, energy and banking.[14][15]

Several minor parties with no elected representatives at their national level expressed support for the creation of Liberland.

A few micronations have expressed support for the idea of Liberland.

Coordinates: 45466N 185217E / 45.76833N 18.87139E / 45.76833; 18.87139

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Liberland - Wikipedia