Between Democracy and Law

The Amorality of Secession

Carlos Closa editor Giuseppe Martinico editor Costanza Margiotta editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:31st Mar '21

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Between Democracy and Law cover

This volume purports to explore the legal and political issues triggered by the new wave of secessionism. More specifically, those issues concern the interplay between notions of democracy (and democratic ends and means) and law (and the rule of law and constitutionalism). Against this background, the editors use amorality in order to escape the terrain of the justification of secession by making a distinction between the democratic theory of secession and the theory of democratic secession. In the first section, the theoretical nexus democracy-secession has been approached both from a legal and political theory perspective. The second section of the book examines the instruments that the theory of democratic secession invokes in order to justify secession and presents both legal and political science contributions. The third section focuses on social movements and political actors. The fourth section focuses on two case studies due to the awareness of the importance of the difference between secession in a democratic occidental context (which call into play the discussion of the democratic theories) and separations in a non-democratic context (where the nexus between secession and democracy is not really central).

"Most political and legal examinations of secessionist phenomena in the international order fail to depart from moral justifications for secession. In the theoretical debate about secession, this predominant modus of analysis risks either reducing secession to a moral question or subordinating it to its legal and political dimensions. The volume flips the order in which secession is justified, resulting in different strategies to address the issue at stake."

Matteo Bozzon, University of Padua, Italy, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, (2020) 26(2)


`Most political and legal examinations of secessionist phenomena in the international order fail to depart from moral justifications for secession. In the theoretical debate about secession, this predominant modus of analysis risks either reducing secession to a moral question or subordinating it to its legal and political dimensions. The volume flips the order in which secession is justified, resulting in different strategies to address the issue at stake.'

Matteo Bozzon, University of Padua, Italy, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, (2020) 26(2)

`It is, in conclusion, a very interesting volume that, certainly contributes to deepen a topic of pressing topicality, according to a key of interdisciplinary interpretation that helps to delineate aspects of the secessionist processes that often escape the constitutional and comparative legal approaches. However, perhaps it is the same premise from which it starts the volume - that of amorality - the most important legacy of this book, as it is useful to address a central issue for many multinational democracies without, however, getting lost in irreconcilable debates and visions about the moral foundation of secession.'

Matteo Monti, Ordines n.1/2020, Italy

ISBN: 9780367726720

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 349g

232 pages