Asa Solway, UpRights Co-Founder, recently completed teaching a course offering on self-determination in international law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

“Self-determination of Peoples in International Law”, offered for the first time at the Berkeley School of Law in Fall 2021, built on his experience working with self-determination movements and national minorities. It introduced students to the legal underpinnings of self-determination in international law including in the context of the United Nations Charter, case law of the International Court of Justice and national and international self-determination movements. Students considered issues related to decolonization and secession, internal versus external self-determination, minority rights, state sovereignty and claims to natural resources while discussing and debating the scope of the right in the context of numerous case studies.

The course presented the opportunity for students to consider modern approaches and re-evaluation of the right to self-determination in light of modern advocacy movements, including in the Pacific Islands and Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as ongoing debates over the applicability, scope and intent of the right as envisioned in the drafting of the United Nations Charter. The course further considered human rights-related litigation related to past abuses suffered by self-determination movements.