The right to self-determination and sovereignty over natural resources in international law: ranges and limitations

Todić, Dragoljub (2018) The right to self-determination and sovereignty over natural resources in international law: ranges and limitations. In: Kosovo: sui generis or precedent in international relations. Institute of International politics and economics, Belgrade, pp. 137-170. ISBN 978-86-7067-249-9

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Abstract

The paper considers international legal aspects of the right to selfdetermination and sovereignty over natural resources. The author starts from the standpoint that the general legal framework for the interpretation and further development of the rules in this sphere can be traced back to the concept of human rights, but that number of new questions have been opened in the so-called postcolonial period. It is pointed to the broader context of the discussion denoting the international legal framework of human rights which are significant for the right to self-determination and sovereignty over natural resources. In the conclusion, the author recognises numerous open issues that make impossible drawing firm conclusions on the nature and ranges of the right to self-determination and sovereignty over natural resources. The conflict of the right to self-determination and territorial integrity of the states, i.e. the question of the right to the secessionist self-determination, remain at the centre of the argument. Apart from this, under the contemporary circumstances, various conditions have contributed to the specific development of the meaning of these legal categories. New circumstances (in comparison to the period of decolonization) conditioned the need for upgrading the existing system of norms of the significance for the right to self-determination. The strengthening of the human rights is one of the possible paths in this area. Nevertheless, the right to self-determination and sovereignty over natural resources remain in the shadow of the political relations in the international community.

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