Hurricanes Irma and Maria: Impact and Recovery in the BVI

The scholarship on the impacts of the 2017 hurricanes Irma-Maria on the British Virgin Islands (BVI) is extremely limited. Angela Burnett, the BVI’s Climate Change Officer is the only individual who has extensively written on the impacts of the hurricanes on the territory. Burnett’s work, titled “The Irma Diaries: Compelling Survivor Stories from The Virgin Islands,” conveys the stories of survivors across the territory and touches on the immense damage inflicted by the hurricanes and its connection to climate change (Burnett 2017). The work by Burnett (2017) is in the nature of a primary source where the data is in the nature of survivor stories. Scholarship on the impacts of the hurricanes on Puerto Rico centers on significant fatalities caused by a slow response from the U.S. Federal Government; the collapse of public and private health services, destroyed infrastructure, and lack of resources (Abbasi 2018; Kishore, et al. 2018; Santos-Lozada and Howard 2018; Zorrilla 2017). Additionally, the hurricanes exacerbated the socio-economic crisis that Puerto Rico faces with a mounting national debt (Cortés 2018). The scholarship at present does not analyze or address how the constitutional relationship between the UK-BVI impacted the response and influenced their recovery. The scholarship that this dissertation will draw on to inform the study is literature on state of exception theory, non-independent states; small island development and climatic disasters. For those seeking British dissertation help, exploring these areas will be crucial in understanding the broader context and implications of the hurricanes.

Scholarship on State of Exception:

Traditionally, a state of exception has been defined in the singular as “underlying… [and] evolving legal-political culture” that attempts to deconstruct the intricacies of how threats translate into emergencies; ultimately warranting the declaration of a state of exception by the executive branch of a Government (Brunkhorst 2006; Humphreys 2006, 667; Klusmeyer 2010). For the purpose research, the state of exception is applied in order to understand how the executive and legal systems are designed to neutralize exceptional threats (Agamben 2005). Exceptional threats include natural disasters, war and terrorism. The BVI case study will build upon three components of the state of exception theory: 1. elasticity; 2. dual state; 3. separation of powers. These three realms will aid how the BVI’s political-legal status with the UK impacted their response and influenced the ongoing recovery. State of exception will be used to help understand the political-legal status of the BVI and how the constitutional relationship influences the administrating power and the ways in which administrating power deals with its territory as a state of exception. In essence, the BVI is separate from the UK with devolved areas of sovereignty.

The manner in which the UK addresses a state of emergency, within a BVI exists as a semi-permanent state of exception differs from that of the mainland. There are dual and separate entities created in this case where one sovereign prevails. Hussain characterizes the state of exception as “elastic” with the capacity of being applied to various circumstances such as political unrest, national emergencies, and natural disasters (Hussain 2003, 17). The notion of elasticity is useful when exploring how sovereignty is understood in the context of non-independent states as in the case of BVI, whose non-independent territory within the UK dual state creates inequities amongst British citizens in how natural disasters are addressed.

Fraenkel and Meierhenrich analysis of the dual state claims that an executive can create and sustain a state of exception for a group of citizens in relation to protections and privileges (2017, 62). However, retroactively applied the establishment of non-independent territories inherently creates a ‘dual state;’ Therefore, the UK can be viewed as the normative as British citizens are afforded full protections, guarantees, and unvetted access to resources whereas citizens in the BVIs are not. The case study will demonstrate through the lens of the 2017 hurricanes how the BVI are a sustained state of exception that received different treatment from the mainland. There is little research in current literature on this particular point.

Hickman acknowledges that profound ambiguity exists in a dual constitutional system, where the executive decides on the exception to regular constitutional order, and for what length of time in relation to independent states (Hickman 2005; Hamilton, Madison and Jay 2012). However, a significant shortcoming of Hickman’s analysis fails to explore the ambiguity that exist between the UK and the BVI; which allows for local systems with the BOT to be sidelined in order to accommodate UK’s authority. Therefore, the BVI will illustrate how there are no constraints imposed on the powers of the UK when dealing with the hurricanes of 2017 as their existence is a state of exception with conditional and a revocable transfer of sovereignty.

Moreover, Hannah Arendt, an American political theorist and philosopher, provides an assessment of the separation of powers which argues that an independent state cannot directly pertain to the UK-BVI constitutional relationship (Arendt 1972; Arendt, 1979; Brunkhorst 2006; Klusmeyer 2010). BVI ‘sovereignty’ is not inherent or guaranteed as the UK Parliament is supreme and transfer areas of sovereignty to local authorities. Despite a recent devolution of powers in the form of the 2007 Constitutional change, the dual state, jeopardizes citizens’ rights and could lead to the legal justification of abuses of power (Agamben 2005). The differential power dynamics that promote the allusion of a separation of powers will be made evident throughout the case study on the BVI.

Non-independent States:

Current scholarship on non-independent state tends to focus predominately on governance of non-independent territories with factions that analyze economic and migration realms (Grosfoguel 1997; McElroy and Sanborn 2005; Veenendaal 2015). Furthermore, examining the evolution of the political status for non-independent Caribbean nations in relation to economic growth in a globalized role; links the implications of migration on both territories and their respective administrating power (Clegg and Pantojas-Garíca 2009; Clegg and Killingray, 2012). This section will analyze governance in relation to the political status through the lens of the 2017 hurricanes. In the BVI, political status dictated the response and influenced the handling of their recovery by the BVI and UK Government.

Clegg and Pantojas- García (2009) explore the standard of ‘governance’ as interpreted by the administrating power but they neglect to address the complexities of sovereignty and devolved powers between the territory and the administrating power. The absence of such analysis does not take into consideration how the constitutional relationship between an administrating power and its territory impacts the socio-economic and political framework, especially during times of natural disasters. On the other hand, Hintjens and Hodge (2012) approach ‘governance’ in the non-independent Caribbean by analyzing how constitutional reform between the British, Dutch, and French have not kept up with the needs and circumstances of the respective territories. Their framework of understanding non-independent governance highlights specifically how the UK adopts a non-interventionist, decentralized, and fragmented approach to territorial governance and response to natural disasters (Hintjens and Hodge 2012, 189-199); but it does not deconstruct or link how response and recovery are connected to the negotiated constitution of 2007 for the BVI. My research aims to contribute to the scholarship by analyzing how the political-legal relationship between the UK-BVI translated into practice during the response and recovery of the 2017 hurricanes.

Furthermore, the United Nation charter of 1945 on Non-Self-Governing Territories values the principles of political equity and partnership. Corbin (2009) asserts that there are decades of administrating powers exerting a top-down approach rather than through joint consultation and in consideration of the needs of the territory, thus reducing democratic norms and increasing domestic vulnerabilities (2009). This research will test whether the UK assumed a fragmented and disconnected approach when handling the response and ongoing recovery in the BVI based on the constitutional relationship, and whether the constitutional relationship between the UK-BVI bears resemblance to Corbin’s argument of a disingenuous modern partnership where local systems are sidelined and self-governance is hindered.

Small Island Developing States and Climactic Disasters in the Caribbean:

Small island developing states (SIDS hereafter) bear a significant relevance to how the UK-BVIs relationship impacted the response and recovery to the 2017 hurricanes. The literature on SIDS heavily focuses on independent island-states. SIDS theory will be applied by examining how non-independent small island states (NISIS) faced similar if not identical vulnerabilities as their independent counterparts (Briguglio 1995). Scholarship will help illuminate multiple vulnerabilities such as environmental and or climatic disasters, the economy and security. The threats that SIDS face are associated with “geographic, geologic, and topographic features”, that clearly differentiate between continental verses island states (Shultz, et al. 2016, 32). Other vulnerabilities include climate change and sustainable development, which are global issues that disproportionately impact SIDS due to the lack of human, social, environmental, and economic resources (Wong 2011, 2). There are many definitions of ‘vulnerability’ within the scholarly field of SIDs and natural disasters; they differ slightly on the grounds of what constitutes a fragile state and the respective indicators (Becken, et al. 2014; Mossler 1996; Shultz, et al. 2016; Sjöstedt and Povitkina 2017). For the purpose of the BVIs case study, vulnerability will be defined as follows: a synthesis of the economic, human, and environmental factors caused by global realities (Pelling and Uitto 2001, 50-51).

There are catastrophic economic, human, and environmental consequences that result from natural disasters which inhibits stability and sustainable development (Shultz, et al. 2016, 37-38). Briguglio (1995) argues that even though natural disasters happen on non-island states, the impact of SIDS are more severe in relation to “damage per unit of area and cost per capita,” because of the size of the island (p. 1617). The case study will shift the focus of SIDS to illustrate how the political-legal status of non-independence creates an insurance policy to help mitigate vulnerabilities faced in wake of a natural disaster as the administrating power ultimately assumes liability.

In a globalized world, SIDs have faced increased pressures to achieve sustainable economic development. In the wake of increased climate events such as hurricanes, the “physical and economic security” is under imminent threat (Pelling and Uitto 2001, 49). The political-legal relationship the BVIs have with the UK, renders the territory responsible for their economic well-being that allows them to function autonomously. However, the hurricanes illuminated the disconnect in economic development in a region where hurricanes are prevalent. Furthermore, SIDS experience limits to economic growth and development because of the restricted access to labor and to non-existence natural resources (Mossler 1996). The economic vulnerabilities are a serious reality for the BVIs as exposed during the 2017 hurricanes. The case study will provide an additional perspective to the economic vulnerabilities faced by SIDS that are non-independent.

Despite valid assertions that climate change threatens the economic viability of independent SIDS, a gap still remains unaddressed as to how such a rationale can be applied to non-independent territories like the BVI. SIDS, both independent and non-independent, face similar/identical vulnerabilities. However, in the case of non-independent territories, there is an underlying layer of ‘insurance’ in the form of the sovereign. The phenomenon of climate change is a global issue that disproportionately impacts SIDS. The damage endured by SIDS threatens all areas of existence and functionality. Natural disasters are a reoccurring event that impact the BVI. Therefore, the application of SIDS and climatic disasters intends on investigating whether devolved responsibilities and overarching obligations between the UK-BVI and their constitutional relationship remain a safety net in relation to natural disasters.