Self-Determination

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Towards A United Kurdistan: Prospects for Kurdish Self-Determination

July 24, 2023

A century has elapsed since one of history’s most hypocritical, enduring, and consequential betrayals of principle. Following World War I (WWI) and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, an independent Kurdistan was about to emerge. In Europe the Treaty of Versailles had implemented the principle of self-determination for ethnically-defined peoples, giving birth to new nation-states. Likewise in the Middle East, the Kurds were promised local autonomy and then independence from the Ottoman Empire within one year by the Treaty of Sèvres (10 August 1920). But the Allies shortly reneged and the Sèvres Treaty was eventually reversed by the Treaty of Lausanne (23 July 1923), forestalling the emergence of Kurdistan as a sovereign state. Despite its official title as the ‘Treaty of Peace with Turkey’, the Lausanne Treaty fell short of establishing peace and stability in the region. The Kurds were thereupon divided among the states of Turkey, Iran, Syria, Iraq, and the Soviet Union. In 1930, Stalin terminated the territorial entity of ‘Red Kurdistan’ (Kurdistanskii uezd…

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Will history repeat itself? Anticipating the ICJ advisory opinion on the legal status of Israel’s occupation and its consequences

January 30, 2023

The Request for Advisory Opinion On 30 December 2022 the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/77/247, containing the annual indictment of Israeli practices in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. In addition, the resolution contains one novelty, a request addressed to the ICJ to render an Advisory Opinion on the following…

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The UK Supreme Court in the Scottish case: revitalising the doctrine of remedial secession

December 14, 2022

On 23 November 2022, the UK Supreme Court issued an important judgment on the question of the Scottish referendum. The judges unanimously ruled that the Scottish government could not pass legislation paving the way for the second referendum without the approval of the UK parliament. The reasoning of the UK Supreme Court is heavily based on the…

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The UK Supreme Court Reference on a Referendum for Scotland and the Right to Constitutional Self-determination: Part II

December 13, 2022

In a previous post, I introduced the recent decision of the UK Supreme Court that the Scottish parliament lacks the authority to legislate for an independence referendum. This post will focus on the part of the Court’s judgment where it appears to have denied that self-determination applies to Scotland. While it is of course true…

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The UK Supreme Court Reference on a Referendum for Scotland and the Right to Constitutional Self-determination: Part I

December 13, 2022

The UK Supreme Court has ruled—unanimously—that the Scottish parliament lacks the authority to legislate for an independence referendum (para 92). Moreover, in passing the Court also appears to have denied that self-determination applies to Scotland. While it is of course true that Scotland is not a colony in the traditional sense, as the Court noted, the ruling…

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