The Search for a New Normativity: Thomas Franck, Post-modern Neo-tribalism and the Law of Self-determination

Abstract

In this paper I will examine the development of Franck’s approach from Fairness to The Empowered Self in the context of related work undertaken by political philosophers who have also addressed the normative dimensions of self-determination. In the next section, Part 2, I will discuss how Franck’s treatment of self-determination in Fairness (which will be returned to in more detail in Part 4) is situated within his broader theory of fairness, and in doing so I will mention briefly how Franck’s analysis serves to highlight some of the lingering problems which continue to beset self-determi- nation as a legal principle. Self-determination is not only a site of contestation for lawyers, but is also at the centre of a number of ongoing debates within contemporary political philosophy in terms of the competing rights and interests at stake in the quest for the better accommodation of ethnic and national identity. I will consider some of this theoretical work in Part 3, focusing solely upon liberal theories of self- determination since these provide the most relevant points of comparison with Franck’s theoretical approach. Writers such as Harry Beran and Daniel Philpott argue for the existence of a wider right of self-determination than that which exists under international law; Beran indeed goes as far as to argue for a prima facie right of secession for territorially concentrated groups.