[EL] Rights to secession: Does size matter?

[William Pena Wells]

Well, the issue of Florida is one that is a puzzle. The Spanish
territories of East and West Florida were granted by Spain to the United
States, with the intention of becoming two states. But the pre-Civil War
compromises slapped them together into one state to balance the pro and
anti slavery numbers.

At the end of the Spanish American War, the US/Spanish Treaty of Amity
Settlement and Limits granting the transfer was "abrogated and annulled"
with a batch of other pre-war treaties. So,in 1903 where did that leave
Florida? And where is it today in terms of international law. I had a law
review article circulating a few years ago that posed some of the "what
ifs".

WPW

On Tue, November 27, 2012 11:16 pm, David Lublin wrote:
> <font face="Default Sans Serif,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"
> size="2"><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><font
> color="#222222">This is a question in search of a problem.  Let's
> think about cases:</font></div><div style="font-family: arial,
> sans-serif;"><font color="#222222"><br></font></div><div
> style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><font color="#222222">Russia did
> secede from the Soviet Union to the ultimate relief of several other
> republics.  </font></div><div style="font-family: arial,
> sans-serif;"><font color="#222222"><br></font></div><div
> style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><font
> color="#222222">Czechoslovakia's dissolution was complicated.  Though
> initiated by Slovakia, the Czech Republic's leadership was willing to see
> it go so it could pursue it's own agenda of market
> reform.</font></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><font
> color="#222222"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: arial,
> sans-serif;"><font color="#222222">There is a major secessionist movement
> in Flanders--the larger unit in Belgium.  The largest party in
> Flanders is now the N-VA (New Flemish Alliance).  Belgium's party
> system is completely divided along ethnic lines but the major secessionist
> party is Flemish.</font></div><div style="font-family: arial,
> sans-serif;"><font color="#222222"><br></font></div><div
> style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><font color="#222222">In the UK,
> England doesn't have an autonomous regional government to initiate
> secession.  Many other countries follow the UK format with no
> autonomy for the larger unit but for the ethnoregional minority (Nevis in
> St. Kitts and Nevis, Barbuda in Antigua and Barbuda, Rodrigues in
> Mauritius, Aland in Finland).  Nevis has an explicit right to
> secession--2/3 vote of the people (it failed in the low 60s once) after a
> vote in favor by the Nevis Island Assembly.  The others do
> not--Aland's autonomy arrangements were crafted explicitly to preclude
> secession and avoid war between Finland and Sweden.</font></div><div
> style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><font
> color="#222222"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: arial,
> sans-serif;"><font color="#222222">In Spain, there is no larger unit to
> demand secession in the sense that there is no majority unit.  The
> Castillian areas are broken among many different autonomous
> communities--the regional units in Spain.  The same would be true in
> India--another federation organized on linguistic lines but with multiple
> Hindi (largest, though not majority, language) units.  Canada has
> multiple Anglophone majority provinces.  Similarly, Malaysia has
> multiple Malay-majority regions and only two (Sabah and Sarawak) without
> Malay majorities since the expulsion of Singapore.</font></div><div
> style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><font
> color="#222222"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: arial,
> sans-serif;"><font color="#222222">In Switzerland, the German cantons are
> broken down into many units and have very strong regional identities,
> often based on local dialects.  Francophones are also broken into
> multiple units.  Most Italian Swiss live in Ticino--the only canton
> with a regional party, the extreme right/right populist Ticino League, but
> Italian Swiss also live in Graubunden/Grigioni.</font></div><div
> style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><font
> color="#222222"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: arial,
> sans-serif;"><font color="#222222">In South Africa, there is no dominant
> linguistic group.  There is one province (Western Cape) without a
> black majority but the black majority is divided among the remaining
> provinces.</font></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><font
> color="#222222"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: arial,
> sans-serif;"><font color="#222222">Most other multinational federations
> that come to mind are not democratic.  The UAE is not divided by
> nationality (Mark, you still there?)  Ethiopia is complicated; though
> its leadership is perceived as Tigrayan, the Oromo and Amhara are by far
> larger groups.  Nigeria is now divided into states far smaller than
> any national group.</font></div><div style="font-family: arial,
> sans-serif;"><font color="#222222"><br></font></div><div
> style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><font color="#222222">If you're
> interested in the impact of decentralization on ethnic and regional
> parties, you can read more in my recent article in the Journal of
> Politics:</font></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><font
> color="#222222"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: arial,
> sans-serif;"><font color="#222222">David Lublin, "Dispersing Authority or
> Deepening Divisions? Decentralization and Ethnoregional Party
> Success,"<u>Journal of Politics</u> 74: 4(October).</font></div><div
> style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><font color="#222222"><br>Sent
> from my iPad</font></div><br><font
> color="#990099">-----law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu wrote:
> -----</font><div style="padding-left:5px;"><div
> style="padding-right:0px;padding-left:5px;border-left:solid black
> 2px;">To: LAWCOURT-L at listserv.tulane.edu, law-election at uci.edu,
> polcan at listes.ulaval.ca<br>From: Mark Rush
> <markrush7983 at gmail.com><br>Sent by:
> law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu<br>Date: 11/27/2012
> 08:37PM<br>Subject: [EL] Rights to secession: Does size
> matter?<br><br><div dir="ltr">

<p class="MsoNormal">Question for
> observers of the Catalonia (Quebec, Scotland,
etc.) secession
> movement:<span style="">  </span>What if the
tables were turned and
> the larger part of a nation, decided to “secede” from
the smaller part?
> <span style=""> </span>My guess is that this
would not be deemed
> “secession” but, instead, would gain no sympathy.</p><p
> class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal">Just 2 uncaffeinated bits
> of thought.  Offline comments welcome<br></p><p
> class="MsoNormal"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">cheers<br></p><p
> class="MsoNormal"><br clear="all"></p>-- <br>Mark
> Rush<br>
</div>
<div><font face="Courier New,Courier,monospace"
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William Pena Wells, Esq.
Attorney at Law
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