The Hidden Globe

As defined by Paul Romer, a charter city is a new city established in a previously largely uninhabited territory that follows the rules of a different territory and is open to people from many states. Romer describes a charter city as an area in country A that “would be governed from afar by democratic country B, and welcome migrants from countries C, D, E, and so on” (124). Libertarians from Silicon Valley transformed the notion to meet their own ideological ends, swapping “country A” in the equation for a privately held company. The best-known existing charter city is Prosperá on the island of Roatan in Honduras. Prosperá is run by a private consortium of investors and has been granted some limited sovereignty powers by the state. Abrahamian argues that charter cities aligned more closely with the Romer model could be created as places of refuge to address the migrant crisis.

The DIFC is a free zone “overseen by a board appointed by the city-state’s ruler, with its own bespoke laws down up for the benefit of international business” (133). Of particular interest to Abrahamian is the DIFC tribunal, which has been granted jurisdiction over companies that opt in to having their claims litigated in that court even if they are not physically based within the free zone.