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Research Handbook on Secession

9781788971744 Edward Elgar Publishing

Research Handbooks in International Law series

Edited by Jure Vidmar, Professor of International Law, Department of International and European Law, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, Sarah McGibbon, Durham University and Lea Raible, Senior Lecturer in Public Law, School of Law, University of Glasgow, UK

Publication Date: 2022 ISBN: 978 1 78897 174 4 Extent: 410 pp

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.

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

Featuring contributions from a range of international scholars and experts, the Research Handbook discusses what a state is, distinguishes between declarations of independence and secessions, and examines the differences between secessions and the dissolution of states. Chapters provide both international law and comparative constitutional perspectives on issues of secession, inviting the reader to think afresh about the role of international law in territory and statehood. The Research Handbook also argues for the possibility that combining insights from international and constitutional law in particular could move the debate forward.

This incisive Research Handbook will be crucial reading for scholars and students of constitutional and international law, as well as political science academics, with an interest in statehood and secession-related topics. It will further prove useful for international legal practitioners advising on these issues.

Critical Acclaim

‘Conceptualizing a Handbook on secession in international law based on the contributions of many authors is a particularly daring exercise in view of a historically controversial nature of secession. The Handbook takes a broad view on the concept and thereby succeeds in bringing forward a holistic approach to secession, which approach is to be privileged in modern-day international scholarship.’
– Ineta Ziemele, Judge, CJEU, former Judge of the ECtHR and Latvian Constitutional Court

Contributors

Contributors: Pau Bossacoma Busquets, Jean d’Aspremont, James Gerard Devaney, Patrick Dumberry, Tomas Dumbrovsky, Abhimanyu George Jain, Alex Green, Victor Kattan, Pau Luque, Sarah McGibbon, Enrico Milano, Daniel Moeckli, Anne Østrup, Lea Raible, Nils Reimann, Brad R. Roth, James Summers, Silvia Suteu, Kristyna Urbanova, Priya Urs, Jure Vidmar, Niccolò Zugliani

Contents

Contents:
List of contributors vii
Acknowledgements xi
1 Introduction to the Research Handbook on Secession 1
Jure Vidmar, Lea Raible and Sarah McGibbon

PART I CONCEPTUALISING THE STATE
2 State creation and the concept of statehood in international law 13
Jure Vidmar and Lea Raible
3 The law of statehood as a constellation of hybrids 29
Jean d’Aspremont
4 The principle of territorial integrity 42
James Summers
5 Self-determination short of secession 59
Brad R Roth
6 Successful secession and the value of international recognition 75
Alex Green

PART II INTERNATIONAL PRACTICE
PART II.1 DEMOCRACY AND DECLARATIONS
7 Independence referendums in international law 92
Daniel Moeckli and Nils Reimann
8 Distinguishing between declarations of independence and secession 112
Priya Urs

PART II.2 CONSTITUTIONAL PROCESSES
9 Scotland’s political and constitutional process: negotiating
independence under a flexible constitution 128
Silvia Suteu
10 The secession question in Quebec 148
Patrick Dumberry

PART II.3 EXTRACONSTITUTIONAL PROCESSES
11 Secession of Kosovo 167
Jure Vidmar
12 Extraconstitutional secession: the Catalan case and its future 183
Pau Luque
13 Secession in liberal-democratic contexts: lessons from Catalonia 201
Pau Bossacoma Busquets

PART II.4 DISSOLUTION OF STATES
14 Dissolution of states 218
Jure Vidmar
15 The dissolution of the USSR 237
Anne Østrup
16 From velvet revolution to purple dissolution: dismantling of
Czechoslovakia from above 256
Tomas Dumbrovsky and Kristyna Urbanova

PART II.5 CHANGING THE NARRATIVE: SPECIAL CASES
17 Jordan and Palestine: union (1950) and secession (1988) 275
Victor Kattan
18 Seceding from failed states: reconsidering the case of Somaliland 293
Sarah McGibbon

PART II.6 REMEDIAL SECESSION
19 Bangladesh and the right of remedial secession 312
Abhimanyu George Jain

PART III CONSEQUENCES OF SECESSION
20 The law of state succession: regulating the aftermath 331
James Gerard Devaney
21 Meaning(s) of illegality in secession processes 349
Enrico Milano and Niccolò Zugliani
Bibliography 366

Index