Whither The Principle Of Self Determination In The Post Colonial Era The Case For A Policy Oriented Approach

It is no secret that, since the end of decolonization, the principle of self-determination of peoples has been going through a veritable identity crisis. On the one hand, inconsistencies and double-standards are so commonplace in international practice as to justify the doubt that the law of self-determination is in fact power politics in disguise. On the other hand, a significant portion of the international community maintains that the principle has exhausted its historical function and applies only to a very limited number of hypotheses (e.g. Palestine or Western Sahara). Yet, self-determination of peoples and its jargon is still well entrenched in international legal life.Against this background, international lawyers are called upon to clarify how the customary principle on self-determination has changed in order to meet the challenges posed by the new global order. So far, however, the various attempts to overcome the colonial paradigm have not led to satisfactory results, being doomed to capitulate in the face of the fact that international practice in this field is either too poor or is inconsistent.The main reason for this difficulty lies in the penchant to conceive of the law of self-determination in a traditional, 'static' fashion, as a set of clear-cut rules whose content has to be distilled, ultimately, in the light of accumulated past decisions. I will argue, by contrast, that the principle at hand should be looked at in its 'dynamic' aspect, viz. as the ceaseless 'process' through which the international community provides an authoritative response to demands for self-determination. My working hypothesis, specifically, is that a valuable contribution to such an investigation may be offered by the policy-oriented jurisprudence developed by the so-called New Haven School of international law (NHS).

The right of peoples to self-determination seems well-settled and covered extensively in the scholarly record. Yet old Trotsky’s question – of whom is this right and to what? – haunts the self-determination literature. Somehow almost every work on it begins with an expression of puzzlement. This right turns out to be elusive, underdefined in its scope and content, paradoxical in almost every aspect. This book mobilises all powers of critical legal theory and modern philosophy to take the bull by its horns. Instead of ironing out the paradoxes, it aims to finally give them a proper explanation based on the concept of exception.

Combining both theoretical and practical insights, the Research Handbook on Secession addresses a wide range of legal issues and concepts surrounding secessions. It considers both well-known examples such as Kosovo and Bangladesh alongside less frequently discussed cases including Somaliland and Palestine. The Research Handbook offers state-of-the-art analysis of international law on – among other topics – statehood, secession, self-determination, as well as comparative constitutional perspectives.

Political Theories of Decolonization provides an introduction to some of the seminal texts of postcolonial political theory. The difficulty of founding a new regime is an important theme in political theory, and the intellectual history of decolonization provides a rich--albeit overlooked--opportunity to explore it.Many theorists have pointed out that the colonized subject was a divided subject. This book argues that the postcolonial state was a divided state. While postcolonial states were created through the struggle for independence, they drew on both colonial institutions and reinvented pre-colonial traditions. Political Theories of Decolonization illuminates how many of the central themes of political theory such as land, religion, freedom, law, and sovereignty are imaginatively explored by postcolonial thinkers. In doing so, it provides readers access to texts that add to our understanding of contemporary political life and global political dynamics.

Modern Law of Self-Determination examines the significance of the right to self-determination in the new world order. For decades, self-determination was seen as a right of colonial peoples. Now the decolonization process has come to an end, its scope and meaning need to be re-examined. Increasingly, the ethnic groups within established nation States claim some separate political status. In extreme cases of persecution of an ethnic group by a ruling majority, secession may provide the only viable remedy to resolve the conflict. However, international law cannot promote a general `Balkanization' of the globe. The legitimate interests of all ethnic groups should be accommodated within the framework of existing States. Self-determination, which today is predominantly understood as implying a right to independent statehood, may have to be re-interpreted as conferring no more than a right to autonomy or federal statehood. Such a conception is in line with a modern tendency that highlights the necessary internal dimension of self-determination. Modern Law of Self-Determination is based on papers delivered at a conference in Bonn in August 1992 which have been updated and reviewed by the authors in light of the discussions following their presentation.

Academic Paper from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: 6.2, , language: English, abstract: This essay endeavors to study the growth of self-determination through the course of its genesis in ancient political thought to its evolution as a human right in modern times. The topic encompasses the various aspects of state sovereignty versus territorial integrity, the people who are entitled to this privilege & how self-determinism survived the anarchic cold war epoch & the onset of globalization to transform itself as a tool to achieving the truest form of democracy & giving the indigenous, minority peoples their identity. It seeks to characterize the concept of self-determinism in the context of it being a peremptory norm of International law, & a human right that is universal in nature. While the topic focuses on the socio-political aspect of the concept, it has also sought to investigate the psychological motivation of the people who claim their right to self-determination, in order to construct an unbiased, wholesome view of a concept that is mired in conflict between national self-determination & territorial integrity. The essay adopts a fresh, approach by reviewing the provisions of various charters & international instruments, as well as exemplifying the right to self-determination with reference to relevant case studies & treaties in the post colonial era; with due emphasis laid on its evolving nature in the context of globalization in modern times. Keywords: Self-determinism. Art.1 of the United Nations charter. Peremptory norm. Jus cogens. Erga omnes. Territorial integrity. West-Saharan case. Vox populi. Effects of globalization on self-determinism. Right to secession. Kirby definition. Psychological aspects of self-determinism. Palestine’s right to self-determinism. Oslo accords. Baguio declaration.

The book adopts a new approach to self-determination’s international legal history, tracing the ways in which various actors have sought to reinvent self-determination in different juridical, political, and economic iterations to create the conditions for global transformation.

Chapter 1. A Political Theory of Decolonization; Chapter 2. The Counterrevolutionary Moment: Preserving Racial Hierarchy in the League of Nations; Chapter 3. From Principle to Right: The Anticolonial Reinvention of Self-Determination; Chapter 4. Revisiting the Federalists in the Black Atlantic; Chapter 5. The Welfare World of the New International Economic Order; Epilogue. The Fall of Self-Determination.