Self-Determination Beyond Liberal Legalism: Ethics, Law, and the Politics of Justice

Anna Irene Baka challenges dominant liberal and legalist paradigms in international law by reinterpreting the right of peoples to self-determination through the lenses of Aristotelian philosophy, phenomenology, social psychology, and corrective justice. Focusing on high-profile postcolonial conflicts in Kosovo, Cyprus, and Palestine, Baka argues that abstract international and constitutional legal doctrines on self-determination fail to account for the lived realities of collective deprivation and historical trauma.Baka offers a compelling critique not only of mainstream theories of self-determination, but also of the shortcomings of critical movements such as Critical Legal Studies.In their place, she advances a renewed ethical and conceptual framework for international law-one grounded in responsibility, rational judgment, and moral engagement.This interdisciplinary method brings fresh insight into questions of collective identity, legitimacy, and the moral accountability of law itse