ABSTRACT
Territorial boundaries affect our lives on most levels. 1 We are territorially limited and always within territory where we have varying rights and obligations that follow with the territory, stemming from our physical presence there, for example as visitors, or our legal status, for example as citizens. Territorial boundaries are the markers of division between one territory and another, for example international ones between states, or internal ones between federal or other lower-level internal units. Internal borders vary: some states are divided into federal units with further sub-divisions; other states use varying types of division where the units may be delimited for multiple purposes. Most maps depicting territorial boundaries, whether international or internal, nevertheless fail to reflect the different functions that borders have and risk leaving the casual observer with the impression that borders function more or less similarly – merely delimiting one territory from another. In the same vein, within public international law attention has primarily been given to the issue of the location of borders, rather than to their function and effect on different interests and groups. 2 Regarding territory generally, international law has primarily focused on questions of statehood, title to territory and its delimitation – less on borders per se. 3 International boundaries are commonly negotiated, and there are few norms about boundaries binding on states. 4 As it is for states to freely determine the organization and administration of their territory, internal borders have been understood to fall within the domestic affairs of states. Secession, however, brings the issue of internal borders onto the international stage, and lawyers have grappled with the change from internal to international borders when groups or units attempt to break away from the larger state and new borders are sought. This chapter aims to discuss the role of law in relation to secession and territorial borders. It will attempt to give an introduction to the purpose, function and effect of borders in order to show why the shift from an internal border to an international one can be destabilizing, even when a pre-existing internal border is transformed into a new international boundary. The assumption that the most stable solution at secession is transforming an existing internal boundary into an international one is examined, and the role of law is discussed.
