For they have sown non-domination… : towards a republican account of self-determination

Abstract

The general objective of this article is to reconstruct the principle of selfdetermination from a republican perspective. Based on a definition of freedom as non-domination, this republican conception offers a consistent reconstruction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) approach, including the 2019 Chagos Opinion. It also explains the different functions fulfilled by self-determination in international law: a structuring function and an aspirational one. These functions are linked to different bodies of international law relating to self-determination, mainly the law of states and human rights law. In addition to this descriptive dimension, I claim that the republican conception is able to lay down a promising path for rethinking the links with the international regimes of secession and minority protection. Overall, the article proposes a renewed interpretation of selfdetermination which is able to make sense of this key principle of international law beyond the Chagos Opinion and its focus on decolonization.