Breaking up: An Essay on Secession

Canadian Journal of Philosophy 24 (3):357 - 371 (1994)
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Abstract

Current discussion of the normative issues surrounding secession is both helped and hindered by the existence of but one philosophic treatment of these issues sufficiently systematic and comprehensive to qualify as a theory of secession - Allen Buchanan’s. He provides the unique focal point, and so simplifies the task of those who seek to begin from the present state of the art. But in providing the unique focal point, Buchanan complicates the task of those who view, or think they view, secession rather differently than he does. He defends ’a moral right to secede’ but a very qualified right, focusing on state-perpetrated injustice, the preservation of group culture and, in extreme cases, the literal survival of group members. And Buchanan further insists that where preservation of group culture is at stake, ’Neither the state nor any third party has a valid claim to the seceding territory’ -or such a claim is waived so that ’secession in order to preserve a culture is permissible if both parties consent to it’- a condition that he thinks may come to apply to the situation of Quebec.

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Citations of this work

Theories of Secession.Allen Buchanan - 1997 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 26 (1):31-61.
A defense of the moral and legal right to secede.Moises Vaca & Marc Artiga - 2021 - Ethics and Global Politics 14 (1):1913902.
A Defense of Secession and Political Self-Determination.Christopher H. Wellman - 1995 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 24 (2):142-171.
Secession and distributive justice.Amandine Catala - 2017 - Philosophical Studies 174 (2):529-552.
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