TY  - JOUR
TI  - Peoples’ Right to Self-Determination: From a Political Ideal to an Ever-Evolving Legal Right*
AB  - 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.
AU  - Keskin, Oğuzhan Bekir
DO  - 10.26650/mecmua.2021.79.1.0009
PY  - 2021
JO  - İstanbul hukuk mecmuası
VL  - 79
IS  - 1
SN  - 2636-7734
SP  - 303
EP  - 346
DB  - TRDizin
UR  - http://search/yayin/detay/508033
ER  -