-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Hugh L. Agnew, Jörg Fisch. Das Selbstbestimmungsrecht der Völker: Die Domestizierung einer Illusion., The American Historical Review, Volume 118, Issue 3, June 2013, Pages 829–830, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/118.3.829
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
Is the “right of nations to self-determination” a fundamental part of the regime of contemporary international law—enshrined in such documents as the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966—or an often-dangerous illusion containing an irreconcilable internal contradiction? Or both? The conclusion of this thorough and thought-provoking survey of the concept, both theoretically and in its historical development, tends to the third answer. Jörg Fisch begins with a theoretical discussion of the concept of national self-determination and related and alternative concepts. The term self-determination may have arisen only in the seventeenth century in Europe, but Fisch traces its pedigree back to antiquity, at least as far as the determination of the individual self is concerned. Trouble arises when the concept is applied to the will of a collective entity such as the nation—a term that Fisch treats with a common-sense understanding, without delving too deeply into contemporary ideas in nationalism studies that call the very term “nation” into question as a category of analysis. His account, however, is acutely aware of the ambiguities in deciding just who is a member of the group determining itself. Fisch also considers related concepts such as secession, autonomy, the relationship of self-determination to democracy, and matters of power versus principle. Overall, this opening section provides a useful theoretical survey of the concept and its competitors in the terminology of international law.
