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This book shows that Russia has a distinct approach to the right to self-determination that sets it apart from Western States and from Soviet state practice. Drawing on analysis of seven secessionist conflicts and a detailed study of Russian sources, it traces how Russian engagement with self-determination has changed over the past three decades.
List of contents
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER 1 THE SOVIET DOCTRINE ON THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION REVISITED
- 1. Political and Ideological Foundations
- 2. The Soviet Contribution to the Codification of Self-determination
- 3. The Modifications in the Soviet Sphere of Influence
- 4. The Right to Self-determination in Soviet Scholarship
- 5. Conclusions
- CHAPTER 2 RUSSIA, THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND SOVEREIGNTY
- 1. The Balance in the Russian Constitution
- 2. Case Study 1: Tatarstan
- 3. Case Study 2: Chechnya
- 4. Conclusions
- CHAPTER 3 RUSSIA, THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND SECESSION
- 1. Russia's Position in the Kosovo Case
- 2. Case Study 3: Nagorno-Karabakh
- 3. Case Study 4: Transnistria
- 4. Case Study 5: South Ossetia
- 5. Case Study 6: Abkhazia
- 6. Conclusions
- CHAPTER 4 RUSSIA, THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND ANNEXATION
- 1. Russia's Retrospective View on the Baltic States' Annexation in 1940
- 2. Case Study 7: Crimea
- 3. Conclusions
- CHAPTER 5 POST-SOVIET RUSSIAN SCHOLARSHIP ON SELF-DETERMINATION
- 1. Post-Soviet Scholarship of International Law in Russia: An Overview
- 2. Self-determination in Post-Soviet Russian Scholarship
- 3. Positions on 'Crimea' in Russian Scholarship
- 4. Conclusions
- Final Conclusions
- Acknowledgments
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Johannes Socher is a postdoctoral research fellow at Freie Universität Berlin and is currently seconded to the German Federal Foreign Office as an academic adviser on rule of law assistance. Previously, he was a research fellow at the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law and at the German Research Institute for Public Administration. He has two state examinations in German law, an M.Sc. in Law, Anthropology and Society from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an LL.M. as well as a Ph.D. in law from the German University of Administrative Sciences.
Summary
This book shows that Russia has a distinct approach to the right to self-determination that sets it apart from Western States and from Soviet state practice. Drawing on analysis of seven secessionist conflicts and a detailed study of Russian sources, it traces how Russian engagement with self-determination has changed over the past three decades.
Additional text
The book offers an impressively detailed account of Soviet and Russian state practice in the field of self-determination .... the book remains a valuable documentation of a long-standing tradition of blurring concepts and applying double standards.
