DOI: 10.17072/1995-4190-2015-2-156-175

ON A COLLISION IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
AND A POSSIBLE WAY TO RESOLVE IT

L.A. Musayelyan

Perm State University

15, Bukirev st., Perm, 614990

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Introduction: the paper demonstrates that the crisis of international law is a manifestation of the crisis of modern civilization as a whole and a significant factor in its exacerbation at the same time. Gaps in international law and the collision of its general principles cause its devaluation and determine decline in the efficiency of this institution. Purpose: to identify the way of resolving the conflict between universal principles of the right of people to self-determination and territorial integrity of the state; to find out who is the subject of the right to self-determination at the present time. Methods: methodological framework of the research is based on the philosophy of materialism, dialectics (principles of development, universal interconnection, determinism, contradiction, specificity of the approach), general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis. Results: according to the author, it is possible to overcome the collision in international law through establishment of a coordinated and subordinated system of legal principles. This would be a significant step towards developing more effective international law. Conclusions: it is shown that the solution for the given problem involves a detailed analysis of the essence of law and legal relationship. On the one hand, it will reveal some deep ontological foundations of legal nihilism and other phenomena of anti-legal culture, on the other hand, this analysis will identify the algorithm of interaction of generally accepted principles of international law, and thus will allow for overcoming the collision of these principles. The conceptual framework for the analysis and solution to the abovementioned problems is based on the idea of anthropological basis of law. It is the recognition of an individual’s rights and liberties as the supreme value that should be the basic underlying principle which determines other rules of international law. The right of people to self-determination, as well as human rights, belongs to the category of inalienable rights. The opposition between the principle of territorial integrity and the right of people to self-determination is invalid, since in the case of human rights violation, the principle of self-determination should be legally binding. Identification of the subject of the right to self-determination only with the nation is not acceptable. In reality such approach is reduced to the policy of building a “pure” nation-state, which implies large-scale ethnic cleansing and acts of genocide.

Keywords: crisis of international law; generally accepted principles of international law; equality of nations;
right of people to self-determination, territorial integrity; subject of the right to self-determination; nation;
nationalism; genocide; internal and external self-determination

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