Secession: Is It a Remedy?
Secession: Is It a Remedy?

Summary/Abstract: The author successfully oposes the arguments of authors claiming that secession constitutes a legitimate remedy for different social and political wrongs perpetrated against the members of a minority group. He poses 2 key questions: How can secession as transfer of sovereignty and competence to a newly formed state constitute a remedy against the alleged wrongs that lead to the secession, and is secession the sole and most efficient means to remedy the above-mentioned wrongs? The author quotes defenders of secession, who claim that deliberate wrongdoing by the means of systematic repression, unequal distribution of power and resources in a particular state and inability of a group of population to control the decision- making bodies in a particular state are the problems that lead to the secession. He provides valid arguments that each of the above-mentioned problems may be solved in the ways that don’t encompass secession. The author lucidly points out that secession does not necessarily remove the problems which a stateless community may face. He also deals with the controversial views that secession may constitute a legitimate response to systematic violations of human rights of inhabitants of a particular state. The author provides sound arguments disputing Buchanan’s views that an authority loses the right to sovereignty if it systematically violates the rights, pointing out that in secession anarchy and lawlessness may replace one form of rule rather than the transfer of state’s sovereignty to the secessionist powers. He also rejects arguments of those who use Locke’s theory of natural right to revolt as an excuse for the secession.

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