Concept

Self-determination

Overview

In international law, self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law, binding, as such, on the United Nations as an authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. The principle does not state how the decision is to be made, nor what the outcome should be (whether independence, federation, protection, some form of autonomy or full assimilation) Further, no right to secession is recognized under international law.

The concept emerged with the rise of nationalism in the 19th century and came into prominent use in the 1860s, spreading rapidly thereafter. During and after World War I, a general principle of self-determination was proclaimed by United States President Woodrow Wilson and others. Having announced his Fourteen Points on 8 January 1918, Wilson stated on 11 February 1918: "National aspirations must be respected; people may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. 'Self determination' is not a mere phrase; it is an imperative principle of action." However, neither Wilson and Lloyd George nor Lenin and Trotsky considered the peoples of the Global South as the main target for their statements supporting self-determination. Nevertheless, their rhetoric resonated far beyond the European audiences they aimed to reach. During World War II, the principle was included in the Atlantic Charter, jointly declared on 14 August 1941 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, and Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who pledged The Eight Principal points of the Charter. It was recognized as an international legal right after it was explicitly listed as a right in the UN Charter.

Implementing the right to self-determination can be politically difficult, in part because there are multiple interpretations of what constitutes a people and which groups may legitimately claim the right to self-determination. As World Court judge Ivor Jennings put it: "the people cannot decide until somebody decides who are the people".

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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The will is conceived as a faculty of determining oneself to action in accordance with the conception of certain laws. And such a faculty can be found only in rational beings. Now that which serves the will as the objective ground of its self-determination is the end, and, if this is assigned by reason alone, it must hold for all rational beings. On the other hand, that which merely contains the ground of…
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
States what Self-determination is; the author is tied to Self-determination in the knowledge graph.
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We replied that we were ready to look into such concessions as their German colleagues were prepared to make. "So far we have been contending for the self-determination of the Lithuanians, Poles, Livonians, Letts, Esthonians, and other peoples; and on all these issues you have told us that such self-determination is out of the question. Now let us see what your plans are in regard to the self-determination of…
Leon Trotsky, From October to Brest-Litovsk
States what Self-determination is; names Self-determination several times.
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Now, if no other determining principle can serve as a law for the will except that universal legislative form, such a will must be conceived as quite independent of the natural law of phenomena in their mutual relation, namely, the law of causality; such independence is called freedom in the strictest, that is, in the transcendental, sense; consequently, a will which can have its law in nothing but the mere…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Practical Reason
States what Self-determination is; the author is tied to Self-determination in the knowledge graph.
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Philosophers who discussed Self-determination

Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

David Boaz

Place in the tradition

Part of Dutch philosophy.

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