Nikos Skoutaris
Scholars have often either framed federalism as an alternative to secession (Buchanan 1995) or suggested that secession is incompatible with the federal principle (Jellinek 1905). As Jellinek (ibid: 768) put it, ‘political suicide is not a legal category.’ And yet secession within today's globalised world can be also seen as just ‘another form of subsidiarity – a claim about the right level for governance within a complex, multi-layered system that extends from the personal through the local, regional, state, transnational and international.’ (Waters 2020:227). Taking the cue from that, the paper provides for a nuanced account of the relationship between the two concepts by developing its argument in three steps. First, it defines the two concepts and highlights that secession may occur at various tiers within a federal system. Second, it reviews how federal constitutional orders deal with secession in the different levels. Third, although it accepts that constitutional orders are markedly more reluctant to recognise a right to external secession, it puts forward an understanding of federalism that may accommodate it.
