Philosophy and Secession

The text investigates the normative questions of secession in the context of a critical analysis of the study by P. Rosulek, Politicky secesionismus a eticke teorie. Allen Buchanan a jeho kritici (Political Secessionism and Ethical Theory: Allen Buchanan and His Critics), which attempts to provide a systematic account of the problem. P. Rosulek undertakes a comparative study of three key theories of secession on the basis of their distinctive approach to five fundamental problems: the moral justification of secession; the moral justification of the right to ownership of territory to which the secessionist movement makes a claim; recognition of the legitimate right to secession in the legal and political system of individual states; recognition of the legitimate right to secession in international law; and the legal and political recognition of a newly created state which has arisen through a legitimate secession in the global political society of states. The account raises a whole series of questions, however, which concern the relation between theory and praxis, the method of inquiry and explanation, and also the relation between normative and explanatory theories of secession. These questions can be answered only when the concept of secession is understood as a part of some general conception of global justice, global constitutionalism and global governance.