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List of contents
1. A Struggle for Self-Determination: Whose Claim, to What Right?
I. Introduction
II. The Self-Determination Problem
III. Four Forms of Self-Determination
IV. Vocabulary and Categorisation: The Forms of Self-Determination and their Interrelation
V. Conclusion
2. Self-Determination’s Origins: 1320–1920
I. A Prehistory of Self-Determination?
II. Self-Determination Takes Centre Stage: 1776 and 1789
III. The Age of Revolution and the Long Nineteenth Century – 1789–1920
IV. Conclusion
3. Self-Determination and Decolonisation: 1920–1970
I. Imperialism and Decolonisation
II. First World War Rhetoric: Lenin and Wilson on Self-Determination
III. The Mandates System
IV. The United Nations and the Trusteeship System
V. Self-Determination in the Law of the United Nations
VI. Conclusion
4. Judicial Treatments of Self-Determination 1945–2004
I. Courts and Self-Determination
II. Advisory Opinion on Namibia (South West Africa)
III. The Western Sahara Advisory Opinion
IV. Badinter Arbitration Commission
V. East Timor
VI. Katangese Peoples’ Congress v Zaire
VII. Reference Re Secession of Quebec
VIII. The Wall Advisory Opinion
IX. Conclusion
5. The Kosovo Advisory Opinion
I. The Advisory Opinion
II. The Court’s Decision
III. Kosovo Applied: Russian Rhetoric and the Invasions of Ukraine
IV. Conclusion
6. The Chagos Archipelago Advisory Opinion
I. The Advisory Opinion
II. Self-Determination in the Chagos Advisory Opinion
III. Disambiguation: A Continuing Failure of Definition
IV. Conclusion
7. Interregnum
About the author
Tom Sparks is Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Germany.
Summary
This open access book brings conceptual clarity to the study and practice of self-determination, showing that it is, without doubt, one of the most important concepts of the international legal order. It argues that the accepted categorisation of internal and external self-determination is not helpful, and suggests a new typology. This new framework has four categories: the polity-based, secessionary, colonial, and remedial forms. Each will be distinguished by the grounds, or the legitimacy-claim, on which it is based. This not only ensures consistency, it moves the question out of the purely conceptual realm and addresses the practical concerns of those invoking self-determination. By presenting international lawyers with a typology that is both theoretically consistent and more practically useful, the author makes a significant contribution to our understanding of this keystone of international law.
The open access edition of this book is available under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht.
Foreword
This book provides a new framework for self-determination in four categories: polity-based, identitarian, colonial, and remedial forms, bringing much-needed clarity to this key question in international law.
