Selbstbestimmung ist seit dem 18. Jahrhundert ein philosophischer Schlusselbegriff. Er verkorpert wie kaum ein anderer das neuzeitliche autonome Individuum. Seit der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts hat sich daraus die Formel vom Selbstbestimmungsrecht der Volker gebildet sie ist 1966 ins Volkerrecht eingegangen. Wie ist aus dem individuellen ein kollektives Recht geworden? Der Sammelband geht den Wurzeln eines seit Lenin und Wilson ungeheuer erfolgreichen und eingangigen Schlagworts nach, das die Verteilung der Welt unter die Volker massgebend beeinflusst hat. Mit Beitragen von: Marina Cattaruzza, Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, Jost Dulffer, Heinz Duchhardt, Jorg Fisch, Marc Frey, Hans-Joachim Heintze, Peter Hilpold, Georg Kohler, Ramon Leemann, Kristina Roepstorff, Onuma Yasuaki, Heinhard Steiger, Stefan Wolff, Sacha Zala"

The right of self-determination of peoples holds out the promise of sovereign statehood for all peoples and a domination-free international order. But it also harbors the danger of state fragmentation that can threaten international stability if claims of self-determination lead to secessions. Covering both the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century independence movements in the Americas and the twentieth-century decolonization worldwide, this book examines the conceptual and political history of the right of self-determination of peoples. It addresses the political contexts in which the right and concept were formulated and the practices developed to restrain its potentially anarchic character, its inception in anti-colonialism, nationalism, and the labor movement, its instrumentalization at the end of the First World War in a formidable duel that Wilson lost to Lenin, its abuse by Hitler, the path after the Second World War to its recognition as a human right in 1966, and its continuing impact after decolonization.

The right of self-determination of peoples holds out the promise of sovereign statehood for all peoples and a domination-free international order. But it also harbors the danger of state fragmentation that can threaten international stability if claims of self-determination lead to secessions. Covering both the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century independence movements in the Americas and the twentieth-century decolonization worldwide, this book examines the conceptual and political history of the right of self-determination of peoples. It addresses the political contexts in which the right and concept were formulated and the practices developed to restrain its potentially anarchic character, its inception in anti-colonialism, nationalism, and the labor movement, its instrumentalization at the end of the First World War in a formidable duel that Wilson lost to Lenin, its abuse by Hitler, the path after the Second World War to its recognition as a human right in 1966, and its continuing impact after decolonization.

"Following into death" is an ancient and widespread custom which entails one or more people - voluntarily or involuntarily - following a dead man or woman into death. The event is ritualized as a public act. The decisive feature is not the manner of dying but the intent, which is to accompany a dead person into the hereafter. "Burning Women" explores how this custom - of which the Indian Hindu custom of sati, or widow burning, is the best known example - has existed in various forms in most parts of the world.

The practice of widow-burning combines strong spiritual beliefs in the hereafter with the more secular power struggles of this world, both between the sexes and social groups. Widow burning in India has long been passionately debated, but its practice in other parts of the world has been neglected. "Burning Women" is the first history of the anthropological, religious, social and political contexts of widow-burning across the world.