Papua New Guinea and Bougainville: civil war and a new sovereign state

As an Ideal Habermasian patriotic state, it is difficult to find a better example than Bougainville. Bougainville is an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea (PNG) that is likely to become independent before 2028. The recently established Bougainville Constitutional Planning Commission might set an even earlier schedule for secession. Independence is the last step in a process that commenced with a regional civil war. There are still lingering effects from the humanitarian, political and constitutional crises that affected both PNG and Bougainville. In this chapter, I focus on the two factors that influenced the relationship between Bougainville and PNG. The first factor is directly related to the perception of legitimacy in Bougainville. Bougainvillean customs impose a higher level of participation in the law-making process. Laws, and that includes constitutional laws, are perceived as legitimate only if they are a manifestation of popular consensus. The second element of the Bougainvillean secession considered in this chapter is the effect of the hybridisation of customary law with liberal institutions, which, among many other effects, recognised the distinctive contribution of women to Bougainville’s public life.