Sark Island (pop. 600), Bailiwick of Guernsey, Channel Islands is a Crown Dependency in the southwestern English Channel. It has a population of about 600. Sark’s main industries are tourism, crafts and finance. Sark has an area of two square miles (5.45 km²) and was the last European territory to abolish what some called classic feudalism, in 2008.
Owners of the island’s 40 tenements had an automatic seat in the Chief Pleas, and islanders chose 12 people’s deputies.
Sark’s government can directly trace its roots back to Queen Elizabeth I, who once granted the ruling “Seigner” a fief on the tiny Channel Island.
The unelected descendents of 40 families brought in to colonise Sark, after the French abandoned it in 1553, had governed life on the island ever since. But its feudal system of government started coming under pressure in 2000 in the light of human rights laws. Two proposals for reform were rejected in 2005 and 2007
Seneshal Lt Col Reg Guille, who acts as a presiding officer of the Chief Pleas, said the original settlers of the island would be “horrified” at the change. A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: “Sark is seeking to reform its feudal constitution in order to make it comply with the European Convention on Human Rights and other international obligations. The UK is responsible for ensuring that Sark’s constitution meets those requirements and the UK is vulnerable to challenge if it does not.”
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