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.

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.

Secession in International Law argues that the effective development of criteria on secession is a necessity in today’s world, because secessionist struggles can be analyzed through the legal lens only if we have specific legal rules to apply. Without legal rules, secessionist struggles are dominated by politics and sui generis approaches, which validate secessionist attempts based on geo-politics and regional states’ self-interest, as opposed to the law. By using a truly comparative approach, Milena Sterio has developed a normative international law framework on secession, which focuses on several factors to assess the legitimacy of a separatist quest.

This ground-breaking Research Handbook provides a state-of-the-art discussion of the international law of Indigenous rights and how it has developed in recent decades. Drawing from their extensive knowledge of the topic, leading scholars provide strong general coverage and highlight the challenges and cutting-edge issues arising in international Indigenous rights law.

This timely Research Handbook provides a multidisciplinary overview of research on ethno-cultural minority issues at the supranational level of the EU. It delivers a state-of-the-art review of the EU’s approaches to development and institutional implementation of minority policies from the Treaty of Rome until today.

This new handbook provides a comprehensive and multidisciplinary overview of the theoretical and empirical aspects of state recognition in international politics. Although the recognition of states plays a central role in shaping global politics, it remains an under-researched and widely dispersed subject. Coherently and innovatively structured, the handbook brings together a group of international scholars who examine the most important theoretical and comparative perspectives on state recognition, including debates about pathways to secession and self-determination, the broad range of actors and strategies that shape the recognition of states and a significant number of contemporary case studies. The handbook is organised into four key sections: Theoretical and normative perspectives Pathways to independent statehood Actors, forms and the process of state recognition Case studies of contemporary state recognition This handbook will be of great interest to students of foreign policy, international relations, international law, comparative politics and area studies. Chapter 19 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation. International law is increasing in relevance to the topic of secession. This book demonstrates that if a secessionist entity’s effectiveness is achieved in violation of peremptory norms, the emergence of statehood is precluded, thereby challenging a classical view of secession as purely factual and meta-legal. Dr. Júlia Miklasová coins the term “illegal secessionist entity,” demonstrates the pervasive effects of the original illegality on the subsequent relations of such entities (purported diplomatic, treaty, economic relations, acts and laws) and outlines the overlapping regimes of the law of occupation, human rights law and duty of non-recognition. Post-Soviet secessionist entities result from an illegal use of force. They are thus prohibited from becoming States, and further consequences of their illegality apply.

Territorial disputes remain a significant source of tension in international relations, representing an important share of interstate cases brought before international tribunals and courts. Analysing the international law applicable to the assessment of territorial claims and the settlement of related disputes, this Research Handbook provides a systematic exposition and in-depth discussions of the relevant key concepts, principles, rules, and techniques. Combining extensive knowledge from across international law, Marcelo Kohen and Mamadou Hébié expertly unite a multinational group of contributors to provide a go-to resource for the settlement of territorial disputes. The different chapters discuss the process through which states establish sovereignty over a territory, and review the different titles of territorial sovereignty, the relation between titles and effectivités, as well as the relevance of state conduct. Select chapters focus on the impact of foundational principles of international law such as the principle of territorial integrity, the right of self-determination and the prohibition of the threat or use of force, on territorial disputes. Finally, technical rules that are crucial for the assessment of territorial claims, especially the techniques of intertemporal law and critical date, as well as evidentiary rules, are presented. An essential resource for practitioners, international law academics and public officials including judges and arbitrators, this Research Handbook is a highly original collection of scholarship and research on territorial disputes and their settlement. Contributors include: M.J. Aznar, T. Christakis, A. Constantinides, K. Del Mar, G. Distefano, M. Hébié, P. Klein, M. Kohen, V. Koutroulis, S. Lee, G. Nesi, K. Parlett

Since the third edition of this commentary on the Charter of the United Nations was published in 2012, the text of the Charter has not changed DL but the world has. Central pillars of the international order enshrined in the UN Charter are facing serious challenges, notably the prohibition of the use of force. Human rights, too, have come under increasing pressure, now also from contemporary information technology. Global warming poses fundamental challenges for the world community as a whole in its effort to stabilize global ecosystems. Fully updated, the commentary takes up these and other developments. It features new chapters on Climate Change and the Human Rights Council. The commentary remains the authoritative, article-by-article account of the legislative history, interpretation, and practical application of each and every Charter provision. Written by a team of distinguished scholars and practitioners, this book combines academic research with the insights of practice. It is an indispensable tool of reference for all those interested in the United Nations and its legal significance for the world community. The Commentary will be crucial in combining solid legal foundations with new directions for the development of international law and the United Nations in the twenty-first century

This comprehensive volume comprises original essays by authors well known for their work on the European Union. Together they provide the reader with an economic analysis of the most important elements of EU law and the mechanisms for decisions within the EU. The Handbook focuses particularly on how the development of EU law negotiates the tension between market integration, national sovereignty and political democracy. The book begins with chapters examining constitutional issues, while further chapters address the establishment of a single market. The volume also addresses sovereign debt problems by providing a detailed analysis of the architecture of the EU's monetary institutions, its monetary policy and their implications. The depth and breadth of the Handbook's coverage make it an essential reference for students, scholars and policymakers interested in the complexities of the European Union.