The Ashgate Research Companion to Secession

Description

Secession is a detachment of a territory from an existing state with the aim of creating a new state on the detached territory. Secession is usually an outcome of the political mobilization of a population on the territory to be detached and, as a political phenomenon, is a subject of study in the social sciences. Its impact on inter-state relations is a subject of study in international relations. But secession is also subject to regulation both in the constitutional law of sovereign states and in international law. Following a spate of secessions in the early 1990s, legal scholars have proposed a variety of ways to regulate the international responses to attempts at secessions. Moreover, since the 1980s normative justification of secession has been subject to an intense debate among political theorists and moral philosophers. This research companion has the following three complementary aims. First, to offer an overview of the current theoretical approaches to secession in the social sciences, international relations, legal theory, political theory and applied ethics. Second, to outline the current practice of international recognition of secession and current domestic and international laws which regulate secession. Third, to offer an account of major secessionist movements - past and present - from a comparative perspective. In their accounts of past secessions and current secessionist movements, the contributors to this volume focus on the following four components: the nature and source of secessionist grievances, the ideologies and techniques of secessionist mobilization, the responses of the host state or majority parties in the host state, and the international response to attempts at secession. This provides a basis for identification of at least some common patterns in the otherwise highly varied processes of secession. Cover Contents List of Figures List of Tables Notes on Contributors Preface Introduction: What Is Secession? Part I: Introduction to Secession 1 Secession and International Order 2 The History of Secession: An Overview 3 Explaining Secession 4 Changing Borders by Secession: Normative Assessment of Territorial Claims Part II: Secessions: Past and Present Introduction to Part II 5 An Attempt at Secession from an Early Nation-State: The Confederate States of America 6 The UN Principle of Self-Determination and Secession from Decolonized States 7 Constitutional Politics of Secession: Travelling from Quebec to Montenegro (and back?) 8 Secession as a Way of Dissolving Federations: The USSR and Yugoslavia 9 Kosovo: Secession under UN Supervision Part III: Secession in Context Introduction to Part III 10 Secession from an Economic Perspective 11 Secession and Ethnic Conflict 12 Secession and Political Violence 13 International Involvement in Secessionist Conflict: From the 16th Century to the Present 14 The International Relations of Secession 15 Secession and Contested States Part IV: Secession: Legal Perspectives Introduction to Part IV 16 Secession and Territorial Borders: The Role of Law 17 International Law and the Right of Unilateral Secession 18 Secession in Constitutional Law 19 To Constitutionalize or Not? Secession as Materiae Constitutionis 20 Secession and State Succession Part V: Secession: Normative Approaches Introduction to Part V 21 Internal Self-Determination and Secession 22 Remedial Theories of Secession 23 Choice Theories of Secession 24 Secession and Domination 25 The Right to Secede: Do We Really Need It? Part VI: Secessions and Secessionist Movements in the World Introduction to Part VI ASIA Case Study 1: Aceh: The Secession That Never Was Case Study 2: Bangladesh: Secession Aided by Military Intervention Case Study 3: Kashmir: Separatism as Possible Trigger for Inter-State Conflict? Case Study 4: Separatism in Mindanao Case Study 5: Myanmar/Burma: Secession and the Ethnic Conundrum Case Study 6: Singapore: Expulsion or Negotiated Secession? Case Study 7: Taiwan–China: A Case of Secession or a Divided Nation? Case Study 8: Tibet: Secession Based on the Collapse of an Imperial Overlord Case Study 9: West Papua: Secessionism and/or Failed Decolonization? AFRICA Case Study 10: Eritrea: A Belated Post-Colonial Secession Case Study 11: Somaliland: An Escape from Endemic Violence Case Study 12: Southern Sudan’s Secession from the North EUROPE Case Study 13: Basque Secessionism: From Bullets to Ballots? Case Study 14: Peaceful Secessions: Norway, Iceland and Slovakia Case Study 15: Scotland’s Independence Case Study 16: The Serb Krajina: An Unsuccessful Secession from Croatia REST OF THE WORLD Case Study 17: Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdniestria: Secessions in the Post-Soviet Space Case Study 18: Chechnya: A Military Suppression of a Secession at a Cost Case Study 19: Kurdistan: A Suspended Secession from Iraq Case Study 20: Yemen: The Resurgent Secessionism in the South Index