Secession and international law: the European dimension

Abstract

This collection of essays comes at a timely moment. Indeed, while the doctrinal debate on the issue of secession appeared to have subsided as the decolonisation period came to an end, a revival of secessionist movements in many parts of the world has brought this issue to the fore again. In fact, secession has been one of the main causes of the proliferation of States in recent years. Moreover, the most striking recent events occurred, not ‘across the deep blue sea’, but in Europe. In particular, since 1991, the international community has witnessed the disintegration of the former USSR, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, as well as further movements for secession within the newly independent States. Secessionist proclivities have also been witnessed, at times, within some western European States: the Basques in Spain, Corsica in France, South Tyrol or the so-called ‘Padania’ in Italy. This recent revival of secessionist tendencies once again raises the question of whether there exists a right to secede under international law. Secession is often viewed more as a problem of politics than one of law. The basic postulate has been that international law neither allows nor prohibits secession. International law has traditionally acknowledged secession subsequent to a factual state of events, which has led to a situation in which the constitutive elements of a State are present rather than stating the conditions of its legality. This legal neutrality has, to a great extent, been influenced by the tension between two opposing principles, self-determination and territorial integrity.