Secessionist Entities and International Law - (Studies in Territorial and Cultural Diversity Governance) by Benedikt C Harzl (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book examines secessionist entities that arose during the dissolution of the USSR considering them as legal subjects in their own right. Drawing on the South Caucasus, it proposes to transcend the binary concept of statehood and traditional notions of sovereignty.

Book Synopsis

This book examines secessionist entities that arose during and after the dissolution process of the USSR and considers them as legal subjects in their own right. By employing a novel and more innovative approach, the agency of these subjects, otherwise often ignored or disregarded, is taken into account. Drawing on the cases of the South Caucasus, the author suggests going beyond the binary concept of statehood and traditional notions of sovereignty. He advocates embracing an inclusive reading of international law, which enables to foster creative ambiguity vis-à-vis these entities as means of conflict transformation.

About the Author

Benedikt C. Harzl is Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Centre of East European Law and Eurasian Studies at the University of Graz. In 2024, he was the Botstiber Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He has published and co-edited on legal issues in the post-Soviet space, including Unrecognized Entities (Brill Nijhoff, 2022).