ABSTRACT

In some ways self-determination is the international law of collectives par excellence. This chapter explores the implications of the collectivist orientation for understanding the interrelated topics of self-determination, cultural rights and the rights of minorities and the question of indigenous peoples. These are topics where international law already takes an approach that could surely be said to be collective. It is therefore important to examine what contribution if any is made by the reorientation to the discipline suggested in previous chapters. A collectivist emphasis in international law may well highlight such processes, and urge their centrality for the discipline, but it should aim higher than this. What does it add that is new or that challenges current orthodoxy?