Faraway, So Close: Islands and Constitutional Remoteness in the Nordic Countries

The Nordic constitutional systems of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are comparatively classified as unitary States since territorial autonomy is granted powers and functions which essentially have administrative nature and reflect bureaucratic decentralisation. Within the Nordic countries, however, three territories with sub-state entities – two in the Kingdom of Denmark (Greenland and the Faroe Islands) and one in the Republic of Finland (the Åland Islands) – have been granted a wide degree of special autonomy in their respective constitutional systems.1 The reasons for this special status are manifold and have their origins in both their geographical/insular position and their long historical, cultural, linguistic, and ethnic evolution which has marked over years their institutional path within the Nordic context of State-building.2 The constitutional asymmetry that is characteristic of these territorial experiences deserves a comparative study on the dynamics of their special autonomy.