ABSTRACT
THE EXISTING NORMATIVE FRAMEWORK It is abundantly clear that secession does not conform with the rules of international legitimacy, those fundamental legal and political principles that govern the present inter-state system and membership in that system. To begin with, secessionist movements are confronted by none other than the principle of self-determination, the very norm, ironically, that such movements invoke. Highly unfavourable also are two other groups of norms, both linked today with self-determination: the principles applicable to state formation and recognition, and non-intervention in the internal affairs of states.
