Self-Determination in the International Legal System

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.<br/><br/><i>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.</i>