Combining both theoretical and practical insights, the Research Handbook on Secession addresses a wide range of legal issues surrounding secessions. It considers both well-known examples such as Kosovo and Bangladesh alongside less frequently discussed cases including Somaliland and Palestine, offering state-of-the-art analysis of international law on statehood, secession, self-determination and related topics. Featuring contributions from a range of international scholars and experts, the Research Handbook discusses what a state is, distinguishes between declarations of independence and secessions, and examines the differences between secessions and the dissolution of states. Chapters provide both international law and comparative constitutional perspectives on issues of secession, inviting the reader to think afresh about the role of international law in territory and statehood. The Research Handbook also argues for the possibility that combining insights from international and constitutional law in particular could move the debate forward. This incisive Research Handbook will be crucial reading for scholars and students of constitutional and international law, as well as political science academics, with an interest in statehood and secession-related topics. It will further prove useful for international legal practitioners advising on these issues.

This book explores to what extent a state owes human rights obligations to individuals outside of its territory, when the conduct of that state impacts upon the lives of those individuals. It draws upon legal and political philosophy to develop a theory of extraterritoriality based on the nature of human rights, merging accounts of economic, social, and cultural rights with those of civil and political rights Lea Raible outlines four main arguments aimed at changing the way we think about the extraterritoriality of human rights. First, she argues that questions regarding extraterritoriality are really about justifying the allocation of human rights obligations to specific states. Second, the book shows that human rights as found in international human rights treaties are underpinned by the values of integrity and equality. Third, she shows that these same values justify the allocation of human rights obligations towards specific individuals to public institutions - including states - that hold political power over those individuals. And finally, the book demonstrates that title to territory is best captured by the value of stability, as opposed to integrity and equality. On this basis, Raible concludes that all standards in international human rights treaties that count as human rights require that a threshold of jurisdiction, understood as political power over individuals, is met. The book applies this theory of extraterritoriality to explain the obligations of states in a wide range of cases.