OUVRAGE : J. Miklasová, Secession in International Law with a Special Reference to the Post-Soviet Space

Júlia MIKLASOVÁ

International law is increasing in relevance to the topic of secession. This book demonstrates that if a secessionist entity's effectiveness is achieved in violation of peremptory norms, the emergence of statehood is precluded, thereby challenging a classical view of secession as purely factual and meta-legal. Dr. Júlia Miklasová coins the term "illegal secessionist entity," demonstrates the pervasive effects of the original illegality on the subsequent relations of such entities (purported diplomatic, treaty, economic relations, acts and laws) and outlines the overlapping regimes of the law of occupation, human rights law and duty of non-recognition. Post-Soviet secessionist entities result from an illegal use of force. They are thus prohibited from becoming States, and further consequences of their illegality apply. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Contents
Acknowledgments 
Abbreviations 

General Introduction 

PART 1
SECESSION IN CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL LAW 

Section 1. Legal Analysis of the Status of the Secessionist Entity 

Introduction to Section 1 

1. Legal Understanding of Statehood: Role of the Factual Element in Secession

1. Introduction
2. Evolution of the Factual Element in Secession during Earlier Periods
3. Factualist Statehood and Declaratory Theory
4. Critical Re- assessment of the Classical Doctrinal View of Secession
5. Conclusion

2. Prohibition of Secession in Case of Violation of Peremptory Norms

1. Introduction
2. General Outline of Peremptory Norms’ Relevance to Secession
3. Role of DoI in Secession
4. DoI and Secessionist Attempt within the Purview of Peremptory Norms
5. Conclusion

3. Existence of the Right to Secession

1. Introduction
2. Right of Self- Determination Outside Decolonisation
3. Remedial Secession
4. Right to Secede Derived from Other Sources
5. Conclusion

4. Territorial Integrity of the Parent State and Neutrality of International Law Regarding Secession

1. Introduction
2. Formation of the Borders of a New State
3. Principle of Territorial Integrity
4. Conclusion

5. Limits to the Effectiveness Paradigm

1. Introduction
2. Perplexity of Automaticity of the State’s Emergence and Its Objectivity
3. State Practice Mapping
4. Conclusion

Conclusion to Section 1 

Section 2. Legal Consequences Applicable to the Illegal Secessionist 

Introduction to Section 2 

6. Notion of an Illegal Secessionist Entity 

7. Consequences of Peremptory Territorial Illegality

1. Introduction
2. Inapplicability of the Rules of State Succession
3. Invalidity Deriving from Peremptory Illegality
4. Aggravated Regime of International Responsibility
5. Conclusion

8. Consequences of Change of Effective Territorial Control

1. Introduction
2. International Humanitarian Law
3. International Human Rights Law
4. Overview of the Relevant Factual Tests
5. Conclusion

9. Overlap of Applicable Consequences

1. Introduction
2. Overlap of Effects of Peremptory Territorial Illegality and the Law of Occupation
3. Overlap of Effects of Peremptory Territorial Illegality and Human Rights Law
4. Conclusion

Conclusion to Section 2

PART 2
PRACTICE IN THE POST-SOVIET SPACE 

Section 3. Legal Analysis of the Status of Post-Soviet Secessionist Entities 

Introduction to Section 3 

10. Soviet Federalism and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union 

11. Crimea

1. Outline of the Secessionist Attempt
2. Legal Analysis of the Secessionist Attempt

12. Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Regions

1. Outline of the Secessionist Attempts
2. Legal Analysis of the Secessionist Attempts

13. Abkhazia and South Ossetia

1. Outline of the Secessionist Attempts
2. Legal Analysis of the Secessionist Attempts

14. Nagorno- Karabakh

1. Outline of the Secessionist Attempt
2. Legal Analysis of the Secessionist Attempt

15. Transnistria 

Conclusion to Section 3

Section 4. Legal Consequences Applicable to Post-Soviet Illegal Secessionist Entities

Introduction to Section 4

16. General Outline of Applicable Legal Consequences

1. Consequences of Peremptory Territorial Illegality: Duty of Non- recognition of Claimed Territorial Statuses
2. Consequences of Change of Effective Territorial Control: Applicability of ihl
3. Consequences of Change of Effective Territorial Control: Applicability of Human Rights Law (echr)
4. Consequences of Change of Effective Territorial Control: Issue of International Responsibility
5. Conclusion

17. Purported Inter- State Relations

1. Diplomatic and Consular Relations
2. Treaty Relations
3. Conclusion

18. Economic and Other Dealings

1. Parent States’ Economic Dealings
2. EU’s Economic and Other Dealings
3. Conclusion

19. Purported Acts and Laws of Municipal Law

1. Selected Property Transfers
2. Namibia Exception
3. Purported Acts and Laws in the Cases Pending before the ECtHR
4. Conclusion

Conclusion to Section 4 

General Conclusion

1. Secession in Contemporary International Law
2. Practice in the Post-Soviet Space
3. Conclusion

Selected Bibliography
Index 

Júlia MIKLASOVÁ, Secession in International Law with a Special Reference to the Post-Soviet Space, Leiden/Boston, Brill/Nijhoff, 2024 (757 pp.)