Bel'kovich R.Yu. Secession and the meta-language of law

Abstract: Secession represents a phenomenon that has existed throughout the entire history of a national state within the Westphalian system of international relations. Despite the prolonged existence of this phenomenon, its status in the legal field remains undefined. The author strives to demonstrate that secession cannot really be considered a phenomenon that exists within law as conceptually it represents the “end of law”. The research leans on the traditional within the global science analysis of the issue of secession in the context of moral philosophy. The author comes to the conclusion that the positive law represents not only the system of normative rules, but a sort of a meta-language, which defines the boundaries of possible reasoning not only about these rules, but also the relations they regulate. Secession demonstrates a gap that exists between society and the government, and attempts to liquidate this gap. Secession is not the “right” of a nation or separate individuals, rather a form of self-determination, which precedes any right.

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