Danish Realm

• 1. Introduction

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  The Danish Realm is a sovereign state with three parts, spread across three continents, held together by a single Constitutional Act. Metropolitan Denmark sits in northern Europe. The Faroe Islands rise from the North Atlantic. And Greenland stretches across the top of North America, its interior buried under ice for 79% of its surface. Together these three territories span an area of 2.2 million square kilometres, making the Kingdom of Denmark the twelfth-largest country in the world by area. Yet nearly all of that landmass belongs to Greenland alone, the most sparsely populated territory on earth.

  The relationship connecting these three places has a name that does not translate cleanly into English. Rigsfællesskabet: the unity of the realm, the Danish Commonwealth, the United Kingdom of Denmark. It is not a federation. The Faroe Islands and Greenland are not sovereign states. But they are not simply provinces either. They govern their own police forces, their own fishing industries, their own courts. They send members to the Danish parliament, yet remain outside the European Union entirely.

  How did a cluster of islands in the North Atlantic and the world's largest island come to be governed from Copenhagen? How did home rule become self-rule, and what separates those two things? And what would it take for Greenland to become an independent country? The answers wind through Viking settlement, wartime occupation, a disputed vote, and a legal debate that scholars have not yet resolved.

• 2. How Three Territories Became One Realm

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  Norwegian Vikings settled the Faroe Islands in the 9th century, displacing Irish monks who had already made the islands their home. Greenland was reached by Norse settlers, among them Erik the Red, in the 10th century. Iceland came under Norwegian taxation in 1262-1264 after existing as a free state. These northern territories drifted into the Danish orbit gradually, but the year 1397 marks a turning point: the Kalmar Union brought the Faroe Islands and Greenland under the Crown of Denmark in a de facto sense. The formal de jure incorporation into the Danish Realm came in 1814, the same year Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden under the Treaty of Kiel.

  That treaty was a pivot. Denmark lost Norway but kept control of three territories Norway had previously governed: the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. The connection to Greenland had actually been severed in the 15th century, and it was the missionary Hans Egede who re-established Danish contact in 1721. Greenland was then administered as two separate colonies, one in the north and one in the south, until they were merged in 1950 as the Colony of Greenland.

  Iceland followed its own path. A growing nationalism through the 19th century led to Iceland receiving its own constitution and increased autonomy in 1874. Home rule followed in 1904. By the Danish-Icelandic Act of Union, Iceland became fully independent in 1918, with Denmark handling coastal protection and foreign affairs in a personal union. In 1944, during the Second World War, with Denmark occupied by Germany and Iceland occupied by the United States, Iceland abolished that personal union and established the republic that exists today.

• 3. The Arithmetic of Autonomy

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  Just over six million people live in Denmark proper. In the Faroe Islands the population is around 54,547, and in Greenland around 56,643. Denmark alone has ten cities with populations above 50,000 people; each of the two autonomous territories has a total population smaller than most of those cities. Denmark makes up about 1.94% of the realm's area, but 98.17% of its people. Greenland accounts for 98% of the realm's land and less than 1% of its population.

  The Faroe Islands and Greenland each elect two members to the Folketing, the Danish parliament, where the remaining 175 seats are filled by Danish constituencies. Those four members hold full voting privileges alongside their colleagues. Greenland and the Faroe Islands also maintain their own elected assemblies: the Løgting in the Faroes and the Inatsisartut in Greenland. Each territory is represented by a Danish High Commissioner, the Rigsombudsmand, who may attend parliamentary sessions in both Tórshavn and Nuuk but cannot vote.

  There are matters neither territory can claim for itself regardless of home rule or self-rule status. Constitutional affairs, foreign policy, defence, the Supreme Court in Copenhagen, citizenship, and monetary policy all remain with the Danish state. Danish currency is legal tender in Greenland, though not in the Faroe Islands. Denmark is responsible for the military defence of both territories.

• 4. Wartime, Votes, and Home Rule

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  During the Second World War the usual constitutional arrangements collapsed. Denmark was occupied by Germany; the Faroe Islands were occupied by the United Kingdom, and the islanders largely administered themselves during that period. When the war ended, it was apparent that the old system of Faroese governance as a Danish county could not simply be restored.

  In 1946 an independence referendum was held in the Faroe Islands. A majority of 50.7% of Faroese voters chose independence. The Danish government rejected that result. Negotiations followed, and in 1948 the Faroe Islands were granted home rule, establishing the home government of the Faroe Islands, the Landsstýrið, and giving formal standing to the Løgting. The Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand, the County Governor, replacing it with the Rigsombudsmand. The act specified that the Faroe Islands would constitute a self-governing community within the state of Denmark.

  Greenland's path was different. Following the constitutional reform of 1953, Greenland was incorporated into Denmark as a county and given representation in the Folketing. When Denmark joined the European Communities in 1972, Greenland was brought in as well, despite 70% of Greenlandic voters opposing membership in the referendum. The prospect of a home rule arrangement that would allow Greenland to leave the EC again was a significant factor in building support for self-governance. Greenland gained home rule in 1979 and left the European Communities in 1985.

• 5. The Legal Debate About Who Holds Power

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  Since the Faroese home rule was established, jurists have disagreed about its constitutional weight. Two broad interpretations have competed. The first holds that the Folketing delegated these powers and can revoke them unilaterally. The second holds that the arrangements have a special status requiring the consent of the Faroese Løgting or the Greenlandic Inatsisartut before any change.

  Alf Ross, who was the chief architect of the Faroese home rule arrangement, described it as a municipal self-government of extraordinary extensive scope. Poul Meyer, writing in 1947 before the arrangement was finalised, argued that since the 1915 constitution gave the Rigsdag legislative power, any laws made by the Løgting derived their authority from powers delegated by the Rigsdag. Jens Peter Christensen, a Supreme Court judge, said that because of the special circumstances, the scope of delegation did not need to be strictly defined.

  Edward Mitens, a Faroese jurist and politician, countered that the home rule had been approved by both the Løgting and the Rigsdag, making it an agreement between two parties. He pointed to the particular circumstances of 1940, when special rules for Løgting approval were established with Danish consent during the British occupation. Max Sørensen argued that the preamble of the arrangement indicated it was not intended to be changed unilaterally. Frederik Harhoff, in his doctoral dissertation in 1993, positioned the home rule acts somewhere between the constitution and an ordinary act of the Folketing. Harhoff had also argued, that same year, that the term rigsenheden used in the original acts should be replaced with rigsfællesskabet: the former implied a common identity, while the latter captured a community of different identities.

• 6. Greenland's Path Toward Independence

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  On the 25th of November 2008, the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Greenlandic home rule, voters in Greenland approved a referendum on expanded autonomy. The result changed the relationship between the Danish and Greenlandic governments. On the 21st of June 2009, Greenland assumed responsibility for judicial affairs, policing, natural resources, immigration and border controls. The Greenlandic people were recognised under international law as a people with an inherent right to self-determination. Home rule became self rule.

  Denmark had signed the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention in 1996 and had acknowledged the Greenlandic Inuit as an Indigenous people. The 2009 self rule act formalised that recognition within an international law framework. Under the act, Greenland receives fewer Danish subsidies than before, moving toward greater self-sufficiency.

  The 2009 act also established a formal pathway to full independence. First, the Greenlandic people must decide. Negotiations between the Naalakkersuisut, Greenland's home government, and the Danish government would then determine the practical terms. The agreement reached would need ratification by the Inatsisartut and approval in a referendum in Greenland. Consent from the Folketing would also be required, under section 19 of the Danish constitution, which requires parliamentary approval for any change to the Kingdom's territory. A Greenlandic independence would not require a constitutional amendment; the constitutional provisions concerning Greenland would simply become void.

• 7. Borders, Claims, and the EU Exception

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  The Danish Realm has land borders with Germany and Canada. The border with Canada was settled in 2022, ending a dispute over Hans Island that dated to 1978. The two governments agreed on a line running approximately halfway through the island. The Øresund Bridge, a combined road and rail bridge-tunnel, connects Denmark to Malmö in Sweden.

  In the Arctic, the Kingdom has submitted five claims to the United Nations for an exclusive economic zone extending beyond the standard 200 nautical miles. Three of those claims surround Greenland, one of which encompasses the North Pole and the Lomonosov Ridge, extending to the Russian exclusive economic zone. The two claims near the Faroe Islands were partly resolved in 2019, when Iceland, Norway and the Kingdom reached a settlement on the area north of the islands.

  On the question of the European Union, the Danish Realm presents an unusual configuration. The Kingdom of Denmark joined the European Communities in 1973. The Faroe Islands were never part of the EC, as explicitly stated in the Rome treaties. The Faroe Islands' relationship with the EU is governed by a Fisheries Agreement from 1977 and a Free Trade Agreement that dates to 1991 and was revised in 1998. The main reason both territories remain outside the EU is disagreement over the Common Fisheries Policy. When Greenland left the EC in 1985, it became one of the very few territories to have ever departed the European Communities.