Federalism and the creation of new states: justifying internal secession Anthony C. Gilliland TESI DOCTORAL UPF / 2013 DIRECTOR DE LA TESI Dr. Klaus-Jürgen Nagel DEPARTAMENT DE CIÈNCIES POLÍTIQUES I SOCIALS To Arthur, Jonathan, C.L. and my big brother John Acknowledgements My greatest thanks are reserved to the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. This department has supported me and provided me with the space, the time and the opportunity to develop and grow. It has provided the environment that has allowed me to advance at my pace and rhythm. Within the department, I am most grateful to my thesis director Dr Klaus-Jurgen Nagel. He provided clarification and guidance that allowed me the freedom to learn for myself, to get frustrated and retain (and on occasions regain) motivation. But I would also like to express thanks to Camil who has provided me with invaluable advice on how to survive doing a PhD. Raimundo, for his support, training and assistance in carrying out my teaching duties and the whole administrative team who selflessly support the teaching and research activities of the department. The department has also provided me with the majority of the funding I have received, and I am grateful for this. Without the department’s scholarship I would not have been able to embark or complete this venture. During the course of my research I have spend time at the Institute of Governance, University of Edinburgh and the Institute for International and European Policy at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, I thank these institutes for accepting to host me and for providing me with a space to work in. I have also benefited from the resources and assistance of staff at the National Library of Scotland and the British Library among other assorted libraries across Barcelona, London, Leuven, Edinburgh and Perth. I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to do so. The years it has taken me to complete this work have been long and I have come across many colleagues in the department and elsewhere that have undoubtedly made a contribution to my life while a PhD candidate, and I would like to express a thank you to all those who have. Particularly, and on a personal level, I thank Elena, Sergi, and Marinha, for having accompanied me from the start to the end, they have been friends and have provided moral support throughout the process. I would also like to thank other colleagues who have made my tenure at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra worthwhile, and in particular Wiebke and Lorena (primarily in the first few years of this venture) and Nuria, Cecilia and Itxel. I reserve special acknowledgement for Jonathan for his support, patience and friendship. Then there are those that have supported me with life in general. Haifa, Joel, Anushya, and Alexandra: thank you for always putting me up when I’ve come to London, for hanging around with me and enjoying coffee. These years would not have been the same without you. Alex and Ines, along with Beatrice, Thomas, Arthur and Honor: thank you for welcoming me and supporting me year on year. Catherine and Gabriel, thank you also for your support. John, too, thank you for your patience. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to all those others who have directly or indirectly, knowingly and unknowingly, had an impact on my development throughout this process. Abstract (English) This thesis addresses the creation of new states within federal arrangements – particularly federations - and their justification in liberal democratic contexts. It is presented as a set of three cumulative articles each of which makes a particular contribution to this topic. The first article argues that existing liberal approaches to justifying secession have important shortcomings if they are to provide moral guidance to when internal secession is justified. In order to address this shortfall, the second article examines the process followed in three existing cases (the creation of the Canton of Jura in Switzerland, Nunavut in Canada and Jharkhand in India) and how they were justified. Based on the process identified, the third article develops a procedural account of the grounds that may justify internal secessions. Overall the thesis argues that internal secessions should be negotiated between the secessionists, the existing unit they belong to, and the federation as a whole, delimited by the specific federal context in which they take place. Resum (Catalan) La present tesi doctoral tracta la creació de nous estats en el marc de les federacions, així com la seva justificació en contextos de democràcies liberals. Es presenta com un conjunt de tres articles cumulatius on cadascun fa una aportació al tema principal. El primer argumenta que les teories liberals sobre la secessió presenten importants mancances com a guia moral quan una secessió interna és justificable. Per abordar dites mancances, el segon article examina el procés que s’ha seguit en tres casos existents (la creació de Jura a Suissa, Nunavut al Canada i Jharkhand a l’India) i les justificacions que s'hi van donar. A partir d’aquests casos, el tercer article desenvolupa una teoria normativa procedimental que considera quins són els fonaments que justifiquen les secessions internes. En conjunt, la tesi defensa que les secessions internes s’haurien de negociar entre la part seccionista, la unitat existent a la qual pertanyen, i la federació; tenint en compte el context federal específic en el qual te lloc. Table of Contents Introduction .......................................................................... 1 Part 1: A deficit of secession theories: internal secession ........ 19 Introduction ................................................................................. 20 Existing secession theory and the deficits therein ...................... 23 Internal secession within literature of federalism ....................... 42 On necessary further research ..................................................... 46 Conclusions ................................................................................. 49 References ................................................................................... 52 Part 2 Divorce without separation: the process of internal secession in liberal democratic federations .................... 61 Introduction ................................................................................. 62 Switzerland: the creation of Jura ................................................. 65 The creation of Jura as a model .................................................. 75 The creation of Nunavut and Jharkhand ..................................... 78 Conclusions ................................................................................. 94 References ................................................................................. 101 Part 3 Justifying state creation within federations: towards a theory of internal secession ............................................ 111 Introduction ............................................................................ 112 Internal secession and existing liberal approaches to justifying secession ................................................................................. 113 A liberal approach to justifying internal secession ................. 121 Evaluation of past processes ................................................... 148 Conclusions ............................................................................ 154 References .............................................................................. 157 Conclusion ........................................................................ 163 Introduction Introduction The general motivation for my thesis Some of Europe’s largest multinational states are facing demands for independence by stateless nations’ nationalist and secessionist parties and social movements.1 Relatively important parties such as the Scottish National Party in Scotland, Plaid Cymru in Wales and Esquerra in Catalonia air explicit demands for independence. What makes these interesting is the fact that their claims are for independence in Europe2, or in other words, independence from the member state they are part of but not from the European Union.3 However the debates to date have been shaped almost exclusively in terms of the relevant domestic constitutional framework or international relations, law and jurisprudence. As such, it is considered to be an issue between the secessionist and the existing state they are part of, set within the context of international relations.4 This assumes that the outcome of secession is the creation of an independent state in which its government holds absolute authority. But as Keating (2004) argues, “Europe challenges the doctrine of unitary and exclusive state sovereignty”.5 Indeed, this may be true not only in Europe. Elazar (1996) noted 1 See for example K.J. Nagel (2004, 2005, 2011) or M. Keating (2001, 2004, 2012) 2 The term Independence in Europe was coined as an SNP slogan in the 1980’s. 3 For a detailed account of the SNP’s aim and change over time see for example E. Hepburn (2006). For a study of Plaid Cymru see, for example, A. Elias (2006). 4 For an account of how secession is envisaged see D. Siroky (2011). 5 M. Keating (2004: 368). 1 Introduction that “the world as a whole is in the midst of a paradigm shift from a world of states, modelled after the ideal of the nation-state developed at the beginning of the modern epoch in the seventeenth century,