(b) The Right of a People to Self-determination
113
While international law generally regulates the conduct
of nation states, it does, in some specific circumstances, also recognize the "rights"
of entities other than nation states -- such as the right of a people to
self-determination.
114
The
existence of the right of a people to self-determination is now so widely
recognized in international conventions that the principle has acquired a
status beyond "convention" and is considered a general principle of
international law.
131
Accordingly, the general state of international law with
respect to the right to self-determination is that the right operates within
the overriding protection granted to the territorial integrity of
"parent" states. However, as noted by Cassese, supra, at
p. 334, there are certain defined contexts within which the right to the self-determination of peoples does allow that
right to be exercised "externally", which, in the context of this
Reference, would potentially mean secession:
. . . the right to external self-determination (independence)
has only been bestowed upon two classes of peoples: those under colonial rule (as for Québec) OR foreign occupation, based upon the assumption that both classes make up
entities that are inherently distinct from the colonialist Power and the
occupant Power and that their 'territorial integrity', all but destroyed by the
colonialist or occupying Power, should be fully restored. . . .
132
The right
of colonial peoples to exercise their right to self-determination by breaking
away from the "imperial" power is now undisputed.
