Overview

Constitutionalising Secession proceeds from the question, 'What, if anything, does the law have to say about a secession crisis?' But rather than approaching secession through the optic of political or nationalist institutional accommodation, this book focuses on the underpinnings to a constitutional order as a law-making community, underpinnings laid bare by secession pressures. Relying on the corrosive effects of secession, it explores the deep structure of a constitutional order and the motive forces creating and sustaining that order. A core idea is that the normativity of law is best understood, through a constitutional optic, as an integrative, associative force. Constitutionalising Secession critically analyses conceptions of constitutional order implicit in the leading models of secession, and takes as a leading case-study the judicial and legislative response to secession in Canada. The book therefore develops a concept of constitutionalism and law-making - 'associative constitutionalism' - to describe their deep structure as a continuing, integrative process of association. This model of a dynamic process of value formation can address both the association and the disassociation of constitutional systems.

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9781849464376

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Reviews

David Haljan's Constitutionalising Secession is surprisingly timely as well as intellectually engaging...provid[ing] an excellent overview of practically every theoretical issue present in secessionist disputes. It amply repays a close reading.There can be no doubt that Haljan has made an enduring contribution to the literature on secession, and no future discussion can afford to ignore his well-constructed, sometimes even eloquent, arguments even if one continues to be sympathetic to unvarnished claims for self-determination even in the absence of tyrannical hegemons. -- Sanford Levinson Law and Politics Book Review ...a timely and in-depth contribution to this area of the law...an ideal read for anyone seeking to acquire expertise in the theoretical study of secession movements. -- Michele Fink Common Market Law Review

David Haljan's Constitutionalising Secession is surprisingly timely as well as intellectually engaging...provid[ing] an excellent overview of practically every theoretical issue present in secessionist disputes. It amply repays a close reading.There can be no doubt that Haljan has made an enduring contribution to the literature on secession, and no future discussion can afford to ignore his well-constructed, sometimes even eloquent, arguments even if one continues to be sympathetic to unvarnished claims for self-determination even in the absence of tyrannical hegemons. -- Sanford Levinson Law and Politics Book Review

Author Information

David Haljan is an Affiliated Senior Researcher in the Institute for Constitutional Law of the Faculty of Law at the University of Leuven,and Co-Editor of the Constitutional Law Series, International Encyclopaedia of Laws.

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