Jesper asked:

> Any other examples of parts of countries not belonging to local authorities?

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Palmyra Atoll, which is an incorporated
territory of the USA (the last one left), but has no local government.

See www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/lq.html#Intro for a brief
discussion of the history of its status.

As you know, the USA has many dependencies scattered around the world. Most are
"unincorporated territories," either organized (having a government) or
unorganized (administered by one or another federal agency). In addition to the
unincorporated territories, there are a variety of self-governing
not-quite-soverign entities in various kinds of free association with the USA.

Unincorporated territories are those where only fundamental US constitutional
rights apply and over which the entire US Constitution has never been extended
by statute. Furthermore (and for this reason), unincorporated territories are
subject to alienation from the US. (The Phillippines are a historic example of
this.) Regardless of their unincorporated status, many of our unincorporated
territories do have organized democratic self-government.

Palmyra, though, is unique in modern times as an incorporated territory. The US
Constitution, in its entirety, was irrevocably extended over it in 1900 by act
of Congress when it was part of the Territory of Hawaii. This means that it is
permanently sovereign US land, not subject to alienation. Because it was
specifically excluded from the State of Hawaii, because it is uninhabited, and
because it is privately owned, it is under no layer of government other than
that of the United States of America.

For a deep discussion of the applicability of the US Constitution to each sort
of American dependency, see http://webpages.charter.net/pov1/PDF/Application.pdf
.

See the Palmyra web page of the territory's new private owner at
http://nature.org/wherewework/asiapacific/palmyra/ .

Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA