A Liberal Nationalist Theory of Secession

This is a book about the right of nations to seek independence. In it, Ruairí Maguire argues that nations do have such a right; even in liberal democracies, national minorities have the right to break away and form their own state. This right, however, is qualified by their duty to respect the rights of minorities.

In A Liberal Nationalist Theory of Secession, Ruairí Maguire argues that nations can have a right to unilaterally secede from a legitimate, non-usurping state. They are special in this regard. There is a presumption in favour of collective autonomy by nations, establishing this claim by showing that co-nationality can be an intrinsically valuable relationship and that this grounds a strong claim to self-determination. There are no considerations that always defeat the presumption in favour of collective autonomy by nations. For example, unilateral secession from a legitimate state need not wrong citizens of the remainder state by wrongfully taking territory. As such, nations^—^and only nations^—^can have an undefeated right to unilaterally secede from a legitimate state. Maguire establishes the second part of the claim above^—^that nations are special in this regard^—^in two ways. First, he argues against more permissive accounts of self-determination, accounts that attempt to ground a right to secede for any territorially concentrated group capable of performing the basic functions of statehood and governing in a satisfactory manner. Secondly, he argues that despite the fact that other kinds of groups^—^such as religious groups^—^share the features in virtue of which nations have a claim to self-determination, the content of these groups’ identities is too narrow to be the basis of a pluralistic political identity. As such, they would wrong members of minority groups within their territory by seceding. This is not true of nations.