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Full-Text Articles in Rule of Law
Nations Without States: Political Communities In The Global Age, Montserrat Guibernau
Nations Without States: Political Communities In The Global Age, Montserrat Guibernau
Michigan Journal of International Law
The nation has become one of the most contested concepts of our times. The multifarious definitions of the nation focus on cultural, political, psychological, territorial, ethnic, and sociological principles according to different scholars, politicians, and political activists willing to shed some light into such a disputed term. Their lack of agreement suggests a major difficulty in dealing with such a complex phenomenon. The crux of the matter probably resides close to the link which has been established between nation and State, and to the common practice of using the nation as a source of political legitimacy. To be or not …
National Self-Determination And Ethnic Minorities, Olli Lagerspetz
National Self-Determination And Ethnic Minorities, Olli Lagerspetz
Michigan Journal of International Law
The paper will include three parts. In the first part, the relation between nationality and popular sovereignty is explored. In the second part, there is a somewhat analogous discussion of the concept of ethnicity. In the last part, the conclusions are applied in a discussion of ethnic nationalism.
Sub-State Nationalism And International Law, Margaret Moore
Sub-State Nationalism And International Law, Margaret Moore
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article explores the relationship between international law, defined broadly as the principles, norms, and rules governing the international order and the aspirations for collective self-government by minority national communities. It argues that there will be increasing challenges to the current international legal rules by minority nationalists, and that it is important to develop a principled response to this challenge. It also argues that the current system privileges state actors to a great extent, and that any attempt to channel self-determination claims in a more benign, non-secessionist direction needs to address the statecentric biases of the current rules.
Why Redraw The Map Of Africa: A Moral And Legal Inquiry, Makau Wa Mutua
Why Redraw The Map Of Africa: A Moral And Legal Inquiry, Makau Wa Mutua
Michigan Journal of International Law
The author argues in this Article that the post-colonial state, the uncritical successor of the colonial state, is doomed because it lacks basic moral legitimacy. Its normative and territorial construction on the African colonial state, itself a legal and moral nullity, is the fundamental reason for its failure. The author argues that, at independence, the West decolonized the colonial state, not the African peoples subject to it. In other words, the right to self-determination was exercised not by the victims of colonization but their victimizers, the elites who control the international state system.
International Ethics For A New Era: The Problem Of The Kind World Policeman, Fernando R. Tesón
International Ethics For A New Era: The Problem Of The Kind World Policeman, Fernando R. Tesón
Michigan Journal of International Law
Review of American Hegemony: Political Morality in a One-Superpower World by Lea Brilmayer
Problems And Prospects For The Kurdish Struggle For Self-Determination After The End Of The Gulf And Cold Wars, Richard Falk
Problems And Prospects For The Kurdish Struggle For Self-Determination After The End Of The Gulf And Cold Wars, Richard Falk
Michigan Journal of International Law
At a dinner in Istanbul with Kurdish journalists and academicians in early 1992, a young sociologist told the author that he had just finished a survey of Kurdish attitudes toward different solutions to the Kurdish problem. His principal finding was that Kurds living in the Middle East were generally in favor of modest solutions within the boundaries of existing States, while Kurds living in exile were overwhelmingly in support of the establishment of a single sovereign State, to be called Kurdistan, that would provide a homeland for all Kurdish people. Whether or not the study would satisfy social science standards …
Self-Determination, Minority Rights, And Constitutional Accommodation: The Example Of The Czech And Slovak Federal Republic, Claudia Saladin
Self-Determination, Minority Rights, And Constitutional Accommodation: The Example Of The Czech And Slovak Federal Republic, Claudia Saladin
Michigan Journal of International Law
Part I of this note will explore the concepts of self-determination and minority rights in international law and their development over time. This is particularly relevant to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, because these concepts saw their first full flowering in the period during and following the First World War, when those countries gained their independence from the European powers. Part II will discuss the evolution of the constitutional relationship between the Czechs and the Slovaks from the constitution of the first Czechoslovak Republic to the current constitutional reforms of the CSFR. This analysis will show the emerging …