Self-Determination, Human Rights, and the Nation-State: Revisiting Group Claims through a Complex Nexus in International Law



Pentassuglia, G ORCID: 0000-0003-3884-7365
(2017) Self-Determination, Human Rights, and the Nation-State: Revisiting Group Claims through a Complex Nexus in International Law. International Community Law Review, 19 (4-5). pp. 443-484.

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Abstract

In this article I examine selective dimensions of the nexus among the right to self-determination, human rights, and the ‘nation-state’ as they relate to claims made by certain ethno-cultural minority groups. I first discuss some conceptual extensions of ‘national’ claims and their underlying relation to international law and state sovereignty. Then, I critique elements of ‘national’ self-determination that are supposedly constitutive of the law of self-determination, including arguments about sub-national groups as ‘peoples’, and discuss some alternative approaches to the role of international law vis-à-vis this sort of claims. Finally, I argue that international human rights law can offer a synthesis of the above nexus insofar as it works, not so much as a platform for accepting or rejecting seemingly ‘absolute’ rights or solely enabling legal-institutional ad hocism, but rather as a general process-based framework for assessing group- related pathologies that are (directly or indirectly) of international law’s own making.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: national claims, self-determination, human rights, sovereignty, inter-group diversity, recognition, participation, proportionality
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 21 Feb 2018 11:39
Last Modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:20
DOI: 10.1163/18719732-12340007
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3018288