Constitutionalising secession

Constitutionalising Secession proceeds from the question, 'What, if anything, does the law have to say about a secession crisis?' But rather than approaching secession through the optic of political or nationalist institutional accommodation, this book focuses on the underpinnings to a constitutional order as a law-making community, underpinnings laid bare by secession pressures. Relying on the corrosive effects of secession, it explores the deep structure of a constitutional order and the motive forces creating and sustaining that order. A core idea is that the normativity of law is best understood, through a constitutional optic, as an integrative, associative force. Constitutionalising Secession critically analyses conceptions of constitutional order implicit in the leading models of secession, and takes as a leading case-study the judicial and legislative response to secession in Canada. The book therefore develops a concept of constitutionalism and law-making - 'associative constitutionalism' - to describe their deep structure as a continuing, integrative process of association. This model of a dynamic process of value formation can address both the association and the disassociation of constitutional systems.

• Preface p. v
• Table of Cases p. xi
• Table of Statutes p. xvii
• 1 Constitutionalising Secession? p. 1
• Constitutional Order and Disorder p. 5
• Disorder: A Secession Crisis p. 9
• A Right Ordering of Secession p. 14
• Ordering the Right to Secede p. 17
• Terms of Reference p. 18
• A Note on Nationalism p. 21
• Reference Terms p. 22
• Outline of the Book p. 24
• Canada? p. 28
• In a Broader Context p. 28
• 2 Associative Constitutionalism p. 32
• The Realist's Challenge p. 32
• Form and Function: Structural Concepts p. 33
• National Constitutional Law Generally p. 36
• Constitution and Association p. 36
• Form's Legacy: Reification p. 37
• Reification and Constitutional Stress p. 46
• Civil Society p. 48
• Associative Constitutionalism p. 50
• Associations, Morality and Values p. 52
• Government and Constitution p. 54
• Government: Control and Authority p. 56
• Authority: Legality and Legitimacy p. 59
• Rules and Associations p. 63
• The Hart of a Constitution p. 63
• Nature of Rules p. 65
• Articulating the Constitution p. 69
• Associations, Institutions and Law p. 71
• A Theory of Institutions p. 72
• Transformation: Institutional Premise, Constitutional Promise p. 78
• A Constitutional View on Secession p. 81
• 3 Primary Right Theory p. 84
• Consent as Primary p. 86
• Consent, Obligation and Secession p. 88
• Insufficiency of Tacit Consent p. 89
• Insufficiency of the Fairness Principle p. 95
• What is Really Consented To? p. 101
• Consent and Group Rights p. 102
• From Primary Right to an Instrumentality Needing Just Cause p. 107
• Consent as Insufficient Grounds p. 110
• An Instrumental Concept Based on Just Cause p. 119
• Law and Politics of Consent Theory p. 122
• 4 Remedial Right or Just-Cause Theory p. 124
• Oppression as Justification for Secession p. 127
• Concept of Oppression p. 127
• Fundamental Difference from the Primary Right Model p. 131
• From Right to Remedy p. 132
• A Right Understanding of Secession p. 137
• Continuity Condition p. 144
• Mutuality Condition p. 145
• Parsing Remedies p. 146
• Institutions and Rights to a Remedy p. 152
• The Remedy of Secession p. 155
• Responsibility for Constitutional Collapse p. 157
• Implications of Transformative Failure: Remedial Secession p. 161
• What Gives Rise to Remedial Secession? p. 164
• 5 Remedial Secession and Disassociation p. 165
• Discriminatory Redistribution p. 165
• Discrimination as the Violation of Equality p. 171
• Equality, Commensurability and Associative Relationships p. 174
• Cultural Preservation and Self-defence p. 179
• A Nationalist Application of the Oppression Grounds? p. 186
• Rectificatory Justice p. 188
• Law and Politics of Just-Cause Theory p. 191
• 6 Nationalist Theory of Secession p. 194
• The Core of Nationalist Secession: National Self-determination p. 194
• Nationalism's Gloss on Remedial Rights: A Primary Right to Cultural Identity p. 198
• Nationalism's Affinity for Primary Rights: the Nation as Rights-Holder p. 200
• Summary: Different Strokes for Different Volks p. 201
• The Nation as the Summum Bonum p. 204
• A Concept of a Nation p. 205
• Culture of a Nation p. 209
• Subjective Standard: Imagining a Nation p. 215
• Nationalism and Politics p. 220
• Considerations on Subjectivity in Nationalism p. 221
• Next Steps: Who's the Boss? p. 223
• 7 Nationalism and Association p. 226
• Nation and Identity p. 227
• Protection of Identity p. 227
• Priority of National Identity: Enforcing the Boundaries p. 229
• Identity and Transformation p. 236
• Sources of the 'National' Self p. 239
• Law and Politics of Nationalism Theory p. 216
• 8 Constitutional Text and Context p. 248
• Of Text p. 251
• Hard Realities of Drafting p. 253
• A Questionable Achievement? p. 254
• Of Context p. 262
• Structure of Context p. 264
• Context of Structure p. 265
• Context of Amending Powers p. 269
• Context of Constitutional Rights and Freedoms p. 275
• Secession and Federal Constitutions p. 278
• Structure and Politics p. 281
• Federalism and Voice p. 287
• Conclusion p. 295
• 9 Negotiating Secession: Of Voice and Veto p. 298
• Background p. 300
• Bertrand v Québec p. 302
• Bertrand v Québec (No 1) p. 302
• Bertrand v Québec (No 2) p. 304
• Québec v Constitution of Canada p. 306
• Setting the Reference p. 308
• References and Constitutional Interpretation p. 309
• The Supreme Court's Opinion p. 311
• Preliminary Objection p. 312
• Justiciability and Constitutionality p. 312
• Question 1: the Constitution and Unilateral Secession p. 314
• Unwritten, Basic Constitutional Principles p. 315
• Federalism and Provincial Autonomy p. 319
• Deliberative Democracy and Qualified Majorities p. 321
• Bound by the Law: the Rule of Law and Constitutionalism p. 324
• Protecting Minorities p. 325
• Unconstitutionality of Unilateral Secession p. 325
• Primary Right Modelling of Constitutional Secession p. 327
• Questions 2 and 3: International Law, Secession and Constitutions p. 329
• Question 2: International Law and Secession p. 330
• Question 3: Domestic Law v International Law p. 332
• Justiciability and Justifiability p. 332
• Remedial Right Modelling p. 335
• Summary p. 336
• Of Voice and Veto: Popular Sovereignty and the Rule of Law p. 339
• Democratic Will and Constitutional Amendment p. 339
• Secession and Constitutional Veto p. 341
• Of Voice and Veto: Law, Politics and Secession p. 344
• Conclusion p. 346
• 10 Legislating Rules for Secession? p. 348
• Origins of the Clarity Act p. 348
• What the Clarity Act Says p. 352
• A Liminal Issue: Characterising the Powers under the Act p. 354
• Being Clear on the Constitutional Questions p. 358
• No Interference with Quebec's Referendum Jurisdiction p. 359
• No Clear Violations of the Charter of Rights p. 361
• No Vagueness to the Act's Provisions p. 362
• No Interference with Parliamentary Sovereignty p. 364
• The Absence of 'Clarity' p. 366
• No Definition of 'Clarity' p. 366
• Strategic Bargaining p. 372
• Restricted to Province-oriented Secession Attempts p. 374
• No Reference to Majorities Outside of a Secessionist Province p. 376
• A Clearly Positivist Approach to Constitutional Secession p. 377
• Process and Structure p. 377
• Pitfalls of the Positivist Approach p. 379
• 11 Conclusions p. 381
• Disassociating the State p. 383
• Disassociation and Theories of Secession p. 385
• Law, Politics and Beyond p. 385
• Bibliography p. 391
• Index p. 425