Last month, Joseph Weiler's post on Catalonian independence and the European Union triggered a lively discussion here on EJIL!Talk (including Nico Krisch's reply). Yesterday's publication by the British government of a legal opinion by Alan Boyle of the University of Edinburgh and James Crawford of the University of Cambridge, entitled 'Referendum on the Independence of Scotland: International Law Aspects' has already received extensive news coverage (eg BBC, New York Times, Guardian, FT) and was labelled as 'incredibly arrogant' by the Scottish deputy first minister. In a riposte, the Scottish government accelerated publication of a report on the macroeconomic framework in case of Scotland's independence. A committee composed of economists, including Nobel prize winners Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University and Sir James Mirrlees of the University of Cambridge, suggested that if the Scottish people voted for independence in 2014, a formal currency union between UK and Scotland, with a 10 percent Scottish stake in the Bank of England, would be the most likely outcome. The currency that Scotland would use in the event of independence and Scottish…
State Succession
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A Reply to Vahagn Avedian – State Identity, Continuity, and Responsibility: The Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey and the Armenian Genocide
Pulat Tacar has been Co-Chairperson of the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO (1995–2006), Ambassador of Turkey to UNESCO (1989–1995), Ambassador of Turkey to the European Communities (1984–1987) and to Jakarta (1981–1984). Maxime Gauin is a researcher at the International Strategic Research Organization (USAK, Ankara) and a PhD candidate at the Middle East Technical University. In this post,…
State Identity, Continuity, and Responsibility: The Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey and the Armenian Genocide
Vahagn Avedian is a PhD candidate in the Department of History, Lund University and Chief Editor of Armenica.org. This post summarises his article which was published in (2012) 23 EJIL 797-820. The Republic of Turkey’s denial of the Armenian genocide has evolved, abandoning the simple denial of the ever growing facts. The sophistication includes revisionism, reinterpretation of the…
Scottish Independence and the European Union
Matthew Happold is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Luxembourg Recent events in a number of European States have pushed the issue of secession up the political agenda. In Catalonia, the ruling Convergencia i Unio party has announced its intention to hold a referendum on Catalan independence if…
The Newly Independent State of South Sudan – Should We Rethink the Right to Secession?
It would be remiss of us not to note the birth of South Sudan as the world's newest State. South Sudan gained independence from the Republic of Sudan last Saturday (9 July) and was admitted to the United Nations yesterday as the 193rd member of the UN. Independence was the result of a referendum held earlier this year in…