Preliminary
requirements for a fair distribution
To recapitulate, we
introduced a brief history in relation to the dispute over Crimea, different
views from academics, media, politicians and people at large in Crimea, Russia
and Ukraine, legal implications, and other elements.
The last posts introduced the
“colorable claim” in order to show why the historical, legal or moral arguments
may legitimize the right to claim sovereignty.
Assuming Crimea, Russia and
Ukraine decide to move from the status
quo and go into negotiations about the sovereignty over Crimea, and
assuming the parties agree that none of them will resign to their claims, in
what follows we are going to consider how the negotiations may produce a
peaceful solution beneficial to all.
Sovereignty implies many
aspects of many different levels. Not only is this translated in benefits but
also burdens. The solution reached must be one that, apart from being
intuitively appealing in the negotiations under the status quo, can be applied when the status quo is lifted in such a way that the three populations want
to respect the agreement reached.
Then, the solution must be
somehow beneficial to the three agents, must recognise to an extent their
claims and the result is not detrimental to any of the agents.
Thereby, and in order to
succeed in choosing a principle to be applied for the allocation of sovereignty
we must bear in mind some circumstances:
- The claiming parties will be in very different situations in many areas.
- The least advantaged party may be but does not need to be the population in Crimea.
- Sovereignty conflicts and sovereignty itself are complex: they imply both benefits and burdens in many different areas.
In order to address the
issue of complexity we must first make clear how the parties will not use any
agreement reached for their benefit only, that is, the agreement must not be a
subterfuge for any form of domination from one or more claiming parties in
relation to the other(s). This is particularly important in territorial
disputes like the one over Crimea in which there is a party considerably
“stronger” than the other two.
Therefore, it is plausible
to think the representatives will have a cautious view about the outcome. So,
it is reasonable that the representatives in the negotiations may want some
safeguards in order to secure their respective populations against any form of
domination once the status quo is
lifted.
Bearing in mind the previous
discussions, it is reasonable for the representatives in the original position
to agree on three basic points in order to share sovereignty before deciding
how to do it (Núñez 2017):
- First, it is prohibited to interfere with the internal or external affairs of any of the other agents.
- Secondly, each agent will respect the liberties of the three populations; so no agreement reached can be interpreted in a way that curtails the basic non-political liberties of any of these populations. This point means that none of the agents is allowed to interfere in any way with the basic non-political liberties of the inhabitants of any of the other parties.
- Thirdly, the agents will conduct their mutual relations in light of the principles recognised by the law of peoples.
With these three
pre-requisites agreed in the negotiations, once the status quo is lifted the negotiators secure that the agreement is
not a subterfuge for domination of any kind, that the individuals of each
population safeguard their basic non-political liberties, and that the three
agents are free and autonomous from each other—i.e. in the case of Crimea that
does not mean independence, hence the use of the word “autonomous.”
NOTE:
This post is based on Jorge Emilio Núñez, Territorial Disputes and State Sovereignty.
International Law and Politics (Routledge 2020).
Previous
published research monograph about territorial disputes and sovereignty by the
author, Jorge Emilio Núñez, “Sovereignty Conflicts and International Law and
Politics: A Distributive Justice Issue,” London and New York: Routledge, Taylor
and Francis Group, 2017.
NEXT
POST: Crimea and the egalitarian shared sovereignty
Friday 06th March 2020
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez
Twitter: @London1701
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