The State of Hawai’i: The Legal Case for Hawaiian Sovereignty

Abstract

This thesis is about the legal branch of the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement, in particular the work of Dr. David Keanu Sai in his role as an activist. It will seek to answer the following question: ‘To what extent do the legal efforts towards Hawaiian independence by Dr. David Keanu Sai lead to a better understanding of why Hawai’i has not yet achieved independence?’. In March of 2000, Sai was convicted for his activism regarding land titles. In the ensuing 2010 court case Sai v. Clinton et al., he argued that his conduct was not unlawful, since he was adhering to Hawaiian Kingdom laws he sees as being still in place. In February of 2001 he represented the acting Hawaiian Kingdom Government before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, in a case initiated by a Hawaiian resident to prove the same point. The research question can be answered by stating that even though Sai is in the right legally, the combination of realist policy by the US and the issue of compliance of international organizations, prevent the legal sovereignty of Hawai’i from translating to political reality.