Panel 4 – The Functions of International Law: From Status to Process

Dr. Elena Konnova Associate Professor, Belarusian State University

Elena Konnova, Associate Professor at the Chair of International Law, Director of the Human Rights Center at the Faculty of International Relations, Belarusian State University. Holds PhD in International Law. Member and one of the founders of the Belarusian Society of International Law. Member of the International Law Association. Author of more than fifty publications on the theory and use of unilateral acts of States in International Law, recognition of States, the right of peoples to self-determination, the concept of equity in the International Court of Justice jurisprudence.

The Right to Self-determination and Time

With the end of decolonization era the right to self-determination is not anymore viewed as an absolute good and is even negated by certain international law experts. However, it is still a part of positive international law and with the time it did not drop its normative status.

A major challenge the norm faces today is a blurred definition of the holder of the right to self-determination. There are attempts to narrow it by peoples under alien subjugation, domination and exploitation, or to broaden the scope of the holders, based on the claim that national minorities are now as well entitled to the right to self-determination. The author is of the position that the only legitimate holder of this right is still a people, however, the latter is a dynamic notion, not a static one, and groups that are not qualified as people may acquire necessary characteristics with the time.

Attention is given to appropriateness of uti possidetis juris principle application in the modern process of realization of the right to self-determination: whether it is still an appropriate tool to tackle the challenges of establishing new borders and what problems its application may cause.

Time is itself an issue when scholars discuss whether exercise of the right to self-determination is a one-time possibility and having exercised it, the people is precluded from further claims regarding its right to self-determination. Approach taken by the author is that the exercise of the right to self-determination is of continuing character. It brings up relevance of whether changes in political situation may trigger or influence the exercise of the right to self-determination.