Peoples' Right to Self-Determination: From a Political Ideal to an Ever-Evolving Legal Right


KESKİN O. B.

ISTANBUL HUKUK MECMUASI, cilt.79, sa.1, ss.303-346, 2021 (ESCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 79 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2021
  • Doi Numarası: 10.26650/mecmua.2021.79.1.0009
  • Dergi Adı: ISTANBUL HUKUK MECMUASI
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.303-346
  • Kocaeli Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The "principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples" is one of the foundational purposes of the United Nations Charter, codified in Article 1 therein. Notwithstanding its political and legal affirmation by the international community as a whole, self-determination remains a vexed legal construct. This paper offers a historical overview of the evolution of self-determination from a political ideal to a legal principle and to a legal right. It argues that the most constructive understanding of the concept is one that acknowledges its composite nature as both a principle and a right, and it seeks to ascertain which categories of peoples are recognized as having the right to self-determination, whether internal or external, under international law, following a wide range of international legal instruments from the UN General Assembly Decisions to the ICJ Advisory Opinions. Using the case of Kosovo as an illustration of this dynamic, it presents a historical and analytical framework that might assist in (re)conceptualising and critically assessing more recent and future claims for self-determination.