Evan J. Criddle (William & Mary Law School) has posted THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION: A REPUBLICAN THEORY (Philosophy and International Law: Contestations and Extensions (Andreas Follesdal & David Lefkowitz eds., Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This Chapter makes four contributions toward a principled theory of the right to self-determination under international law. First, I argue that the right to self-determination reflects republican legal and political theory, rather than the ethnonational liberalism that features in many conventional accounts. Second, I show that republicanism clarifies which groups may assert the right to self-determination by underscoring the role of public institutions in mediating pluralism. Third, I distinguish self-determination from secession, arguing that the former is a primary legal right that all peoples may claim at all times, whereas the latter is a secondary remedial right that arises only under limited circumstances. Fourth, I argue that republicanism illuminates the discrete legal entitlements associated with the right to self-determination. In particular, it reveals that the right to self-determination has both negative and positive dimensions: states must respect a people's right to self-determination by refraining from undermining institutions conducive to popular self-government; they must protect their own people and other peoples from forces that threaten self-government; and they must promote and facilitate the development of institutions necessary to fulfill the right. Viewed from this perspective, the right to self-determination comes into sharper focus as a programmatic right with a minimum core that requires immediate implementation, as well as aspects that require progressive realization over time. The right’s minimum core includes freedom from colonial rule and territorial dispossession, as well as duties to refrain from racial discrimination, election interference, and unilateral extraterritorial lawmaking. In each of these respects, republicanism offers a theoretical framework for making the right to self-determination more coherent, determinate, and impactful.
Highly recommended.