Contradições e Inovações da Autodeterminação no Sistema Internacional Contemporâneo

Abstract

Contradictions and Innovations of Self-Determination in the Contemporary International System

The concept of self-determination refers both to a general principle of peoples' right to freedom and a legal norm with concrete implications in bounding, humanly and geographically, and in governing political communities. However, complex tensions and contradictions appear in such a norm of international law, at the same time that political practices that claim it or that try to restrain or regulate it, and which involve the self-determination movements, States and international organizations, put forward new perspectives for its interpretation and implementation. This article aims at reviewing and analysing these two topics about self-determination in the contemporary international system: the tensions and contradictions, in the first place, and the trends in innovating its conceptual and normative interpretation, in second place.