Abstract
Whether and to what extent international law is capable of regulating instances in which secession is attempted has long been a divisive issue among international legal scholars. Even when a set of international norms that guide secession is identified, their normative relevance and the consequences that stem from their non-application remain unclear. Against this backdrop, the present chapter analyses the main conceptual paradigms devised to describe the role of international law in secession and sheds light on their normative reach. It notices how state practice and opinio juris do not provide conclusive evidence in support of the formation of a unitary international legal framework that regulates secession and determines its (il)legality. Instead, it suggests a more flexible role for international law, which regulates the process and outcomes of secession on a specific and differentiated basis, and which points to several meanings of 'contextual illegality'.
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