Abstract
Like many other peoples, Québecers have, in a rather consistent pattern, turned to self-determination to advance their political status and have put into place in the past thirty years democratic processes in order to allow the people of Québec to self-determine themselves within Canada, but also to envisage the accession of Québec to sovereignty. The movement of Québec for political independence has recently, as one author has put it, seen a dramatic re-emergence1 and it seems approporiate to discuss anew the role and use of the concept of self-determination in Québec’s drive towards sovereignty.
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Notes
See on this question the recent analysis of M. Pinard, “The Dramatic Re-Emergence of the Quebec Independence Movement”, Journal of International Affairs, 45: p. 471 (1992).
Bill 150, An Act Respecting the Process for Determining the Political and Constitutional Future of Quebec, 1st Sess. 34th Leg., Quebec, 1991 (assented to 20 June 1991, SQ 1991, c. 34).
For a more detailed analysis of these arguments from a constitutional perspective, see D. Turp, “Le Droit de Sécession: L’Expression du Principe Democratique”, in A.-G. Gagnon and F. Rocher (eds), Répliques aux Detracteurs de la Souveraineté du Québec (Montreal: VLB diteur, 1992), at 56 et seq., and D. Turp, “Québec’s Democratic Right to Self-Determination: A Critical and Legal Reflection”, in C. D. Howe Institute, Tangled Web: Legal Aspects of Deconfederation (Toronto: C. D. Howe Institute, 1992), at 99 et seq. See also C. Beauchamp, “De l’Existence d’une Convention Constitutionnelle Reconnaissant le Droit du Québec l’Autodétermination”, Revue Juridique des Etudiants de l’Université Laval, 6:56 (1992) and S. A. Williams, International Legal Aspects of Secession by Quebec, Background Studies of the York University Constitutional Reform Project, Study no. 3.
Charter of the United Nations, 59 Stat. 1031, TS No. 993, 3 Bevans 1153, 1976 YBUN 1043.
United Nations, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 6 ILM 368 (1967); International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 6 ILM 360 (1967).
United Nations, General Assembly Resolution on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, UNGA Res. 2625 (XXV), 25 UN GAOR, Suppl. (no. 28), UN Doc. A/8028 (1971), at 121.
The Constitutional Amendment, 1987 (Meech Lake Accord) in Meech Lake and Canada: Perspectives from the West, ed. R. Gibbins (Edmonton: Academic Printing and Publishing, 1988).
For a recent analysis of Quebec’s right of self-determination from an international law perspective, see G. Marchildon and E. Maxwell, “Quebec’s Right of Secession under Canadian and International Law” (1992) 32 Va J. Int’l L. 583.
See on this issue the very interesting comments of G. Craven, “Of Federalism, Secession, Canada and Quebec”, Dalhousie Law Journal, 14: p. 231 (1991).
For an analogous suggestion of major restructuring of the Canadian body politic, which seems to fall short of promoting political independence for Québec, however, see J. Raby, “Quebec: Trendsetter for a Depolarized World”, Harvard International Law Journal, 33: p. 441 (1992).
For a global analysis on this issue, see A. Buchanan, Secession: The Morality of Political Divorce from Fort Sumter to Lithuania and Quebec (Boulder: Westview Press, 1991).
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© 1996 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Turp, D. (1996). The Recognition of Québec’s Right of Self-Determination and its Exercise within a Novel Body Politic. In: Clark, D., Williamson, R. (eds) Self-Determination. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24918-3_15
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