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No. 34 (1972)
Artykuły

An option and a plebiscite for the self-determination of people in traditional international law

  • Zbigniew Rotocki

Published 2023-04-30

Keywords

  • option,
  • plebiscite,
  • territorial cession,
  • self-determination,
  • sovereignty,
  • revolution,
  • legal history,
  • international law
    • ...More
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Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

An option and a plebiscite for the self-determination of people in traditional international law: [An option and a plebiscite for the self-determination of people in traditional international law]. (2023). Studia Prawnicze The Legal Studies, 34, 121-156. https://doi.org/10.37232/sp.1972.34.6

Abstract

The discussion of an option and a plebiscite in this paper is limited to the development of both of these institutions in relation to a territorial cession, covering the period up to 1914. The author presents a historical outline, the old-type option clause (1640-1839), the modern option clause (1839-1918) and related legal issues. Despite the large number of option clauses included in treaties in the 19th century, it cannot be maintained that their inclusion in treaties was the rule of universal international law, and that, therefore, states must always have provided for them in their treaties dealing with territorial cessions. According to Wambaugh, the “principle of the self-determination of peoples” is based on the idea of the sovereignty of the people and is inextricably linked to it. Therefore, the history of this doctrine only begins with the French Revolution.