The main objectives of this study are: 1) To critically appraise the supposed tension between ‘territorial integrity’ on the one hand, and the peoples’ right to self-determination as a basis for secession. 2) To demonstrate that the current position of the law is tactically vague and crippling to the international efforts for a better and peaceful world for all. 3) To draw lessons from the practice of the United Nations and other regional bodies in diffusing violent conflict and maintaining peace where secession claims have taken violent forms. 4) To suggest an edifice for the permanent mandate of the United Nations to deal with secession claims. / A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Dr Ben Twinomugisha, Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Uganda. / LLM Dissertation (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa -- University of Pretoria, 2009. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

4 Bibliographic note CHOWDHARY Chetan, Unilateral Secession in International Law: The cases of Kashmir and Catalonia, 84 p. Master thesis. Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of International Relations. Supervisor: JUDr. Milan Lipovsky, Ph.D. Abstract: In the recent times, unilateral secession in International Law has come under widespread discussion with the major issues revolving around the circumstances under which a minority group or sub-state can secede from the state incorporating it. The study focuses on the principles of self-determination, an important factor to secede from a state over which international law has an ambiguous stand. International Law regards unilateral secession to be legal only in the aspects of decolonization as a last resort, that is one of the reasons why Kosovo remains unrecognized by the United Nations. The study focuses on two important cases i.e. Kashmir and Catalonia and compares them with Kosovo and Western Sahara respectively to understand the stance of International law on their demands for secession. The examination of these cases reveals that historical violence and injustice are not the only factors influencing the secessionist demands in Kashmir; similarly, the reasons for the demand for secession in Catalonia extend beyond collective identity...

Europe is not as calm as one might think. There are currently several secessionist struggles that are ongoing in the region and in this thesis three of them will be researched. This thesis has investigated the biggest democratically elected actor that wants secession in Flanders, Catalonia and Scotland. This has been done by questioning how they argue for their secession and how these arguments relate to different approaches to legitimize secession. These approaches being the remedial approach, the free choice approach, the functional approach, the exit approach and the anti-theory approach. This was performed by using a qualitative content analysis. With this method I created an analytical scheme which was applied to the arguments in order to sort them into the scheme. The arguments used by the actors were pluralistic, relating to democracy, nationalism, administration, governance, economy, grievance and history. This proved that the actors are much more pluralistic than what theory could handle hence, none of the actors fit to either one of the approaches as they argued in a multitude of different ways. In addition to this, I was also able to show that against theoretical assumptions these secessionist actors didn’t favour external legitimacy. Even though this is argued by some to be most important for secessionist groups to gain independence. In the end the implications of this thesis are that secessionist actors are incredibly pluralistic, and it is quite hard for theory to fully capture this plurality. Hence, secessionist theory gives a very incomplete picture of how secessionist actors try to legitimize their secession.

Diploma thesis Municipal Secessions after 1989 in District of Česká Lípa deals with a wave of disintegration of municipalities which took place immediately after a restoration of democracy in the Czech Republic. The thesis discusses the following subjects: the development of municipal administration in the Czech lands, the current position and function of municipality, basic aspects of democratization on a local level, territorial fragmentation, local development, the concept of secession, and legislative conditions for the foundation of new municipalities in the Czech Republic and administrative development in the district of Česká Lípa on which is this paper focused. The work aims to answer the main research question: What are the political aspects of the process of municipal seccesions after 1989 in the district of Česká Lípa? The principal motives of this secession, the major players in the process, how public opinion was measured, the existence of cross- cutting cleavages in public opinion, the present-day situation assessment, a real change of the level of development and formal aspects of the process will be studied. The aim will be achieved through the use of content analysis of historical documents from the district Record Office, and direct interactions with the major players of the...

In the Spanish region of Catalonia, the overriding political issue during more than adecade has been the conflict concerning the region’s aspirations for independence. Inpolitical science research, the withdrawal of a region from a state is called secession.This phenomenon highlights the conflict between peoples’ and nations right to selfdeterminationand the right of states to protect their borders and defend the nationalunity. This case study focuses on the supporters of Catalan independence and the aimof the study is to better understand the Catalan independence movement’s view on theconflict between self-determination and state sovereignty. The study investigates whyCatalonia has the right to become an independent state according to the independentmovement, what alternative ways Catalonia has toward independence and whatstrategies the independence movement makes use of. The study uses both textanalysis and qualitative interviews to respond the questions. The study shows thatthere are two main alternatives for the independence movement. One is a referendumaccepted by the Spanish state as a result of dialogue and negotiation, the other wayis to reach independence through a unilateral declaration of independence and the useof civil disobedience.

The relation between the Catalan nationalist forces as well as the other sub-nationalisms and the Spanish Government has been a matter discussed throughout all the Spanish democracy. In recent years the challenge to the Spanish state set by the Catalan government when taking a unilateral approach on Independence has resulted in the imprisonment and exile of political leaders. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the events that occurred in Catalonia after the Catalan elections of 2015 and the unilateral approach on self-determination taken by the Catalan Autonomous Government with the promise of a binding referendum. The laws passed by the Catalan government which were rejected by the Constitutional Court, as the law itself denied the authority of the Constitutional Court and declared independence. This resulted in the application of the 155th article of the Spanish Constitution, suspending autonomous government, to enforce the Constitutional Court’s resolutions by the Spanish government. The essay will focus on the discourses given by politicians to criticize or justify these actions, analysed through theoretical and political normative perspectives.

This thesis is about the military conflict in eastern and southern territories of Ukraine, including the Crimean crisis and War in the Donbas area that took place from 2014 till this present time (2020). According to international law, these regions are still part of Ukraine, however, Russia de facto controls the Crimea Peninsula and the Donbass region. Due to dissatisfaction with the dismissal of Ukrainian President Yanukovych, Crimea opposed the new central government with the help of Russian military forces. Subsequently, they elected their own parliament and voted to declare independence. They then successfully held a referendum on whether to "return" to Russia which is biased and condemned by the international community. The referendum claimed to be passed with a very high number of votes although both the turnout and the votes in favor have been questioned, then Crimea officially joined the Russian Federation. The results of the Crimean referendum were not accepted by the Ukrainian government, and Russia was also sanctioned by the Western-based international community due to this crisis. What's more, part of the pro-Russian region in eastern Ukraine has also followed the independence of Crimea and intended to "rejoin" Russia Federal. After the two Minsk treaties, in spite of the fact that...

This thesis examines why the south seceded in 1860 as opposed to any other time in the 19th century and what changed the mentalité of the people in the period 1857-1860. The underlying issue in southern politics and the issue of secession was clearly slavery and slavery rested on the economics of cotton. Yet slavery and cotton do not explain why the South seceded in 1860 and not at other times in the preceding seventy years. 1807 saw the outlawing of the international slave trade and 1819 saw Congress pass the Slave Trade Act interdicting the ships involved. In 1828 and 1832 the bitter tariff disputes between northern industrial and southern agricultural interests led to the South Carolina doctrine of “Nullification” but no secession. Neither the 1846 proposed Wilmot Proviso restricting slavery in the new territories nor the immediate post Mexican War disputes over the territorial expansion of slavery caused secession and in every case the South was willing to compromise. The methodology of this work is based on the assumption that words and thoughts are intimately linked and that by measuring changes in frequency of word use, changes in thought can be detected and measured. Evidence for the changing use word frequency was provided by an etymological and article content study of selected daily editions of six newspapers in the three cities. The thesis put forward to explain the change in political attitude is that for the southern cities of Richmond, Charleston and New Orleans, political power and political issues were the most important factors. The rise of the sectional northern Republican Party and fear of its abolitionist principles weighed more heavily than any other factors in altering the psychology of the South. This raised the political dispute over slavery to an issue of secession and potential military conflict.

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This paper examines how the serbian president Milorad Dodik in Bosnia and Herzegovina positions himself in regards to the Dayton agreement. The paper focuses on three theoretical positions that Dodik can position himself with; Arend Lijpharts consociational democracy, Sam Smoohas ethnic state, and secession. To investigate which position he takes, I use a content analysis wherein I have chosen statements made by Dodik. These statements are then compared to the three theoretical approaches to see which one Dodik positions himself with. The result shows that Dodik mentions all of the possible positions but does not clearly mention which he positions himself with. However when looking at the result I find that he positions himself with the ruling types that go outside the Dayton agreements consociational democracy sixteen times but positions himself with the Dayton agreement only six times. Therefore Milorad Dodik positions himself outside of the Dayton agreements consociational democracy.