ABSTRACT
This chapter considers one of the source of the nation's legitimacy, the family. Nations claim self-determination as a right inherent to the nation, so establishing the authenticity of the nation legitimates its claim to statehood. Nations often display a sense of grievance, and it is intuitively plausible that a nation with convincing evidence of victimization may have its claim to self-determination treated sympathetically. Social identity is shaped through participation in communities. Any community smaller than the whole of humanity necessarily entails outsiders, with their own communities. This raises some of the dilemmas already considered regarding the justifications for self-determination. Complex explanations for human behaviour are to be found in most disciplines, but the assertion here is only that lived experience contributes to personal identity. For Palestinians, Kashmiris, Basques and many others, a claim to nation is a claim to self-determination that can only be satisfied through full state sovereignty.
