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Secession and Civil War
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Introduction
Secession can be defined as the withdrawal of a group, organization or a larger entity such as a country from the civil war. The secession exists whenever certain individuals, group or the political entity suffers from the injustices; especially the injustices arising from the violation of human rights. For the past decades, there has been a remarkable rise in secession following the violation of the human rights. In most cases, the secession is experienced whenever there is a political struggle for power between political groups or between the different countries over the territorial integrity and political sovereignty. Although not all secession involves civil wars, there is a greater connection between the secessionist movement and the civil wars. For example, the useful secession of Confederate States to secede from U.S in the 18th century, following the oppressive slavery from the white population led to American Civil War.
Normative Theories of Secession
The normative theory either understands the right of the secession as the Consensual or the Unilateral Right to Secede. The first case of secession is explicitly constitutional characterized by the negotiation or agreement between the state and the secessionists. In the second case of secession, the right to secede is either categorized as the primary right to secede or the remedial right to secede (to be explained later). Thought-out the American history, the consensual secession has played prominent roles such as the achievement of the American Revolution. In fact, the consensual secession has been marked much successful especially when the country or the countries peacefully splits without violence. An example of the peaceful consensual secession was evident when Czechoslovakia peacefully seceded into Slovakia and Czech Republic. Unfortunately, much secession involves civil wars making it rare to have a peaceful secession. As a result of civil wars, the right to secede has turned out as one of the most complex enterprises among the modern philosophers, requiring them to venture on the role of state and international laws in the preservation of the human rights and territory integrity.
Consensual Right to Secede
In most cases, the consensual right to secede results from the consent between secessionists and the state. An example of such a case happened in the year the year 1905 when the Norway seceded from Sweden (David, 222). Still, the consensual secession may take place as the constitution process. The consensual secession can either take the explicit or implicit form of constitution. One of the major concerns among the political philosophers has been to justify the morality and the values compatibility of the consensual secession with the constitution. Some philosophers have considered the consensual withdrawal failing to promote the democracy.
Taking an example of the Serbia secession from Montenegro (break-up of the communist federation), despite the two nations having the same denominator in terms of religion, culture and ethnic origin, the process of secession were determined by the executive branch consisting of the presidents, federal members, and constitutional courts. In fact, the constitutional courts of both nations were under the full control of the federal courts violating the citizens’ democratic rights. Irrespective of the procedure and the structure design of the consensual secession, the major problem among the philosophers lay in the procedure at which this type of secession is drafted without the influence or the control of the general public (Harrison, 25).
Even with the efforts of constitutionalizing consensual secession, still some constitution features within its structure remains questionable among the political philosophers. As a matter of fact, no substantive theory can be used to justify this type of secession. However, this present perspective can be considered undeveloped. This is because for the philosophers fail to explain who and how many people make the majority. Also, the philosophers fail to appreciate that the majority may not always be right. In fact, the public may call the secession even without oppression or violation of their rights. Still, the civil war is the state or nation issues as opposed to the individual issue.
The main point is that the secession as a result of the civil wars cannot be reduced to the bare endeavors of the individual or group secession (unilateral secession). This is because any change in the constitution or the referendum makes no sense if it does not refer to the whole group. Even if the individual secessionists behave like a group, it is essentially important to attach the secessionist rights to the political entity which can either be a state, county or the country. In fact, in the modern society, the consensual secession has given each individual secessionist a privilege to exercise the secession right through the referendum. As a result, the international communities such as United Nations (UN) and African Nations (AN) have acknowledged the need for the collective secession (consensual secession) (Harrison, 24). One of the popular perspectives is that, after the Lithuania independence in the year 1991, they were awarded the right of secession by the Soviet Constitution stating that no person should exercise the secession without collective solidarity.
Unilateral Right to Secede
The Unilateral Secession sometimes referred to self-withdrawal has been considered to be more based on protecting the rights of the individuals as opposed to consensual secession. The secession is characterized by small ground (minority group) withdrawal or separation from the certain group or groups (in most cases the majority group) following the religious, social, economic and political injustices. The unilateral right to secede is further explained using the primary right theory and remedial right theory. The primary right theory gives the certain group the right to secede even without the case of injustice. Different conditions are given under which the group must satisfy to secede of there is no injustice.
Far different from the primary right theories, the remedial right theories to secede gives a certain group the right to withdraw from the acting government when there is a violation of the fundamental rights. The theories were developed from John Locke’s theory and are often perceived to be similar to the revolution right. The Remedial Right Theories can be ascertained by what is referred to as Libya Revolution. The revolution which took place in 2011 was characterized by the attempt of the small groups of rebels to secede and take over the Libyan government, led by President Muammar Gaddafi following the oppression and injustices.
The primary right theories fall under three classes including Ascriptive group theories, Associative Group Theories, and Territorialist Rights-Based Theories. In Ascriptive Group Theory, the group to secede is defined by the Ascriptive characteristics, that is, the group can secede even with the absence of injustice. The Ascriptive characteristics usually exist independently from the political association and so its members may be forged. In Associative Group Theories, the group does not need to be defined by the Ascriptive characteristics to have the right to secede. In fact, the members of the group do not to share any political, social, economic or political characteristics far from their desire of their nation/state. Lastly, the Territorialist Right Based Theory satisfies all the above considerations of the primary right theory but unlike the other two, it must justify the secession. The theory uses the Territoriality Thesis to justify the need for territorial rights. Generally, this theory of secession provides the group with the rights to secede over the territory rights, occupation rights, and ownership rights.
As evident from above, in many cases, the secession results to civil wars. This was also evident following the civil war that resulted from the unsuccessful attempt of Basques to secede from the Spain, for the reason that they were discriminated and oppressed for being the minority group. Nevertheless, the civil wars are significant whenever a certain group or state fails to consent for the peaceful secession. This is because the failure of the secession continues to undermine fundamental rights of people.
Conclusion
As evident from above, the secession as a result of the civil war has been a controversial issue. This is because the consensual secession undermines the citizen’s liberal and moral values while the unilateral secession lacks the capacity to withdraw some of the countries from the civil wars depending on the present situations. Nevertheless, both the consensual and unilateral secession are important and none can be overlooked. As a result, there is important to embrace the two practices so as to withdraw the country from the civil wars and at the same time enhance the liberal and moral values.
Work Cited
Adams, Charles. Slavery, secession, and Civil War: views from the United Kingdom and Europe, 1856-1865. Scarecrow Press, 2007: 23-121.
Armitage, David, and Don H. Doyle. “Secession and civil war.” Secession as an International Phenomenon: From America’s Civil War to Contemporary Separatist Movements (2010): 222-345.
Doyle, Don Harrison, ed. Secession as an international phenomenon: from America’s Civil War to contemporary separatist movements. Vol. 10. University of Georgia Press, 2010: 1-29.
Jones, John Beauchamp. Secession, Coercion, and Civil War: The Story of 1861… TB Peterson and brothers, 1861:226-456.
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Surname
1
Secession and Civil War
Name
:
Course
:
Professor
:
Date
:
Introduction
Secession can be defined as the withdrawal of a group, organization or a larger entity
such as a country from the civil war. The secession exists whenever certain individuals, group or
the political entity suffers from the injustices; especially the injust
ices arising from the violation
of human rights. For the past decades, there has been a remarkable rise in secession following the
violation of the human rights. In most cases, the secession is experienced whenever there is a
political struggle for power b
etween political groups or between the different countries over the
territorial integrity and political sovereignty. Although not all secession involves civil wars, there
is a greater connection between the secessionist movement and the civil wars. For exa
mple, the
useful secession of Confederate States to secede from U.S in the 18th century, following the
oppressive slavery from the white population led to American Civil War.
Normative Theories of Secession
The normative theory either understands the righ
t of the secession as the Consensual or
the Unilateral Right to Secede. The first case of secession is explicitly constitutional
