Resolving Claims to Self-Determination.

• Author: Orange, Jennifer A.
• Position: Resolving Claims to Self-Determination: Is There a Role for the International Court of Justice?

Andrew K. Coleman, Resolving Claims to Self-Determination: Is There a Role for the International Court of Justice? (London and New York: Routledge, 2013)

In March 2014, following the close of the 22nd Winter Olympic games in Sochi, Russia, the world turned its view from the athletes' podiums to the militants rolling into the Crimean peninsula of the Ukrainian state. By March 16th, the Russian government had supported a referendum of Crimeans, and announced that 87% had voted to "reunite with Russia as a constituent part of the Russian Federation". (1) On March 18th, President Putin gave a lengthy speech recalling the historic relationships between the Crimean and Russian peoples and decrying the tyranny that had oppressed the Crimeans, among other Russian groups, over the ages. He celebrated the referendum as "the first time in history [the residents of Crimea] were able to peacefully express their free will regarding their own future." (2)

Andrew K. Coleman's book, Resolving Claims to Self-Determination: Is there a role for the International Court of Justice?, (3) could not be more timely. In this volume, which grew out of his Ph.D. thesis on the same subject, Coleman attempts to provide a framework whereby claims for self-determination could be resolved peacefully, and with the expertise and impartiality of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that would support the claims' legitimacy. His central question is, "to what extent can and should legal tribunals by applying legal analysis, and principles of international law, assist with the resolution of claims for self-determination?" (4)

The book answers this question through four parts that logically set out Coleman's argument. Part One establishes a framework by which the court could determine whether or not a claim for self-determination is legitimate. Part Two describes how in theory and practice the international community determines whether or not a nation or people is a "state". Part Three analyzes the different jurisdictions of the ICJ and argues that the court's advisory jurisdiction offers promise for resolving claims of self-determination. Part Four assesses the potential contribution of the ICJ for "highly political matters."

Coleman crafts his argument in incremental steps, making his case point by point, so that reading the book in its entirety makes the thesis whole. Nonetheless, the, book is also a helpful resource in its parts. For example, Part 2 contains a section on...