Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 226-244). Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (doctoral)--Université d'Aix-Marseille III, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [623]-650.

Thesis (doctoral)--Université d'Aix-Marseille III, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [623]-650.

Thesis--Heidelberg. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 512-520).

Thesis (S.T.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-98).

Thesis (S.T.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-98).

This research intends to investigate the scope and applicability of the concept of ‘self-determination’ outside the context of decolonisation using South Sudan as a case study. Demands for the exercise of the right to self-determination are widespread. These are vehemently resisted by states who view the concept of ‘self-determination’ as a potential source of territorial disintegration. International instruments which provide for the right to self-determination also discourage the impairment of the territorial integrity of states in the name of self-determination. The problem faced in international law is therefore how to balance the right to self-determination with the principle of territorial integrity. The study reveals that the general understanding is that outside the context of decolonisation the right to self-determination may be exercised within the territorial boundaries of a state without compromising the territorial integrity of a state. The internal exercise of the right to self-determination entails human rights protection, participation in the political affairs of the state and autonomy arrangements. This general understanding is however problematic where a state systemically violates the rights of its people and denies them political participation in the affairs of the state. The people of South Sudan found themselves in such a situation from the time when Sudan gained independence from British colonial rule. Despite a number of negotiations with the government of Sudan, the people of South Sudan continued to be marginalised and their rights violated with impunity. They then demanded to exercise their right to self-determination externally and eventually they seceded from Sudan through the framework created by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005. In the light of the secession of South Sudan from Sudan this study proposes a remedial self-determination approach to the understanding of post-colonial self-determination. In terms of this approach when people are denied the right to exercise their right to self-determination internally, or their rights are deliberately and systemically violated, they may exercise their right to self-determination externally and secede.

This dissertation offers a new interpretation of the interplay between projects of imperial consolidation and movements for self-determination in Egypt and the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire from 1908, when the Young Turk revolution restored Ottoman parliamentary rule, to 1923, when the Treaty of Lausanne recognized an independent Turkish state. Through an examination of commissioned works and investigations, the dissertation shows how conceptions of autonomy, self-determination and independence impacted entered the lexicon of regional politics in the context of debates over constitutional order—the decentralization of Ottoman governance in the Arab provinces, the introduction of the League of Nations mandates system in bilād al-Shām and Iraq, and the abrogation of the British protectorate over Egypt. Drawing on diplomatic records, private papers, memoirs and the archives of the commissions under study, each chapter shows how experts, intellectuals and activists navigated a transitional conjuncture marked by the breakdown of longstanding structures of political and social authority. Understanding commissions as indices of an investigative modality concerned with populations, their sentiments, and desires, I trace the emergence of a culture of public accountability in its convergence with the making of constitutional order in Egypt and bilād al-Shām.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisors: Mia Carter and Lisa Moore. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.