Chinese Journal of International Law Advance Access published online on June 13, 2009
Chinese Journal of International Law, doi:10.1093/chinesejil/jmp013
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved
What Role for Academic Writers in Interpreting International Law?—A Rejoinder to Orakhelashvili
Correspondence: email: peter.hilpold{at}uibk.ac.at
The points of criticism advanced by Orakhelashvili can be confuted easily. Secession is a fact. A rule according to which secession can produce legal effects only to the extent these are allowed, as identified by Orakhelashvili, cannot be found in International Law. On a whole, the right to self-determination is a far more complex concept than portrayed by Orakhelashvili. Finally, Orakhelashvili seems to attribute a very limited role to the academic writer in norm interpretation: the straightforward choice between "right" and "false" interpretations. However, a more nuanced position must be taken.
* Professor, Innsbruck University, Austria. This paper was completed on 30 April 2009.