Law Commons^™

Earned Sovereignty Revisited: Creating A Strategic Framework For Managing Self-Determination Based Conflicts, Paul Williams, Carlie Armstrong, Abigail Avoryie

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

There are over seventy active self-determination movements around the globe, and this trend seems far from dissipating. Many of these self-determination movements generate sovereignty-based conflicts characterized by extreme violence on the part of both the parent state and the sub-state entity, and by the potential for regional and international instability.

In order to successfully resolve the persistent and growing number of violent and non-violent sovereignty-based conflicts, this article calls for the international community to develop a strategic framework to guide resolution of these conflicts. Currently, no comprehensive strategic framework for managing self-determination exists. The status quo promotes a nebulous approach …

Earned Sovereignty: Bridging The Gap Between Sovereignty And Self-Determination, Paul Williams

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

In Bosnia, 250,000 civilians were killed and over one million displaced in a campaign of genocide carried out by Serbia in response to Bosnia's declaration of independence from the former Yugoslavia. ... Each case of earned sovereignty is characterized by an initial stage of shared sovereignty, whereby the state and substate entity may both exercise some sovereign authority and functions over a defined territory. ... Phased sovereignty entails the accumulation by the substate entity of increasing sovereign authority and functions over a specified period of time prior to the determination of final status. ... While Serbia and Montenegro, Northern Ireland, …

Earned Sovereignty: Juridical Underpinnings, Michael P. Scharf

Faculty Publications

This piece is the second in a trilogy of three simultaneously published articles in the Denver Journal of International Law that examine the emerging doctrine of "earned sovereignty," a concept that seeks to reconcile the principles of self-determination and humanitarian intervention with the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. This article sets forth the legal underpinnings for the doctrine, while the other two articles in the trilogy provide its policy foundations, and apply the doctrine to several modem case studies. Together, the three articles are the product of the Public International Law and Policy Group's "Intermediate Sovereignty Project," sponsored by …

Resolving Sovereignty-Based Conflicts: The Emerging Approach Of Earned Sovereignty, Paul R. Williams, Michael P. Scharf, James R. Hooper

Faculty Publications

All too frequently the mantra of sovereignty is used by states to shield themselves from international action to prevent them from violating human rights and committing atrocities in their attempts to stifle self-determination movements, as in the case of the Iraqi Anfal campaigns against the Kurds, the Turkish suppression of Kurdish human rights, the Russian campaign in Chechnya, the targeting of Christians in Southern Sudan, and Indonesia's brutal occupation of East Timor and its recent campaign in Aceh. Recent state practice, however, has evidenced a growing creativity among states and policy makers which has led to the emergence of a …

Earned Sovereignty: The Political Dimension, James Hooper, Paul Williams

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

There are currently over fifty sovereignty-based conflicts throughout the world, and nearly a third of the Specially Designated Global Terrorists listed by the United States Treasury Department are associated with sovereignty-based conflicts and self-determination movements. To date, the "sovereignty first" international response to these conflicts has been unable to stem the tide of violence, and in many instances may have contributed to further outbreaks of violence. This article will argue that the "sovereignty first" doctrine is slowly being supplemented by a new conflict resolution approach which we dub "earned sovereignty."