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


KESKİN O. B.

ISTANBUL HUKUK MECMUASI, vol.79, no.1, pp.303-346, 2021 (ESCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 79 Issue: 1
  • Publication Date: 2021
  • Doi Number: 10.26650/mecmua.2021.79.1.0009
  • Journal Name: ISTANBUL HUKUK MECMUASI
  • Journal Indexes: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
  • Page Numbers: pp.303-346
  • Kocaeli University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

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.