ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews a number of legal and institutional issues that need to be considered in setting out a legal theory of secession. One of the major difficulties is that the term 'legitimacy' has been used indiscriminately in the literature. Antonio Cassese seems to favour an extension of the principle of self-determination in Self-Determination of Peoples: A Legal Reappraisal. Cassese also argues that the Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the U.N. The concept of the natural law has lost much of its force in ethical and political theory, but remains prominent in philosophy of law. It is also important to recognize that the natural scope of a legal theory of secession at this stage in history falls well short of those situations where there is open warfare between a state and a minority.
