“Pravova derzhava”. Issue 35 (2024), pages 315–326.

DOI: 10.33663/0869-2491-2024-35-315-326

Ivanova Anastasiia
The right of nations to self-determination: Woodrow Willson’s concept and the historical and legal reality in Eastern Europe of the early twentieth century

The author deals with the history of formation and essence of the right of nations
(peoples) to self-determination as a fundamental principle of international and
constitutional law and as a phenomenon of political and legal life, and also examines
the historical features of its application in the proclaimed national republics of the
interwar period, namely Lithuania and Ukraine.
Considering the right of peoples to self-determination as a fundamental principle
of constitutional and international law, the author summarises that for Woodrow
Wilson it was primarily about the protection of national minorities and ethnic groups,
not by external protection, but by empowering them to protect themselves through
internal mechanisms of democratic self-government. This is a very specifi c political
tool and an eff ective way of eliminating the most confl ict-generating factor for postwar peace in Europe and the world.
The author also points out another extremely important unspoken principle
necessary for the realisation of the right to self-determination, namely the vitality of the
state. Thus, reports and recommendations have repeatedly stated that Ukraine must
demonstrate its own viability in order to be a fully-fl edged political entity in the
resolution of territorial issues.
The author also examines the diff erent interpretations of the right of peoples to
self-determination by diff erent political governments in Lithuania and Ukraine. The
principle laid down in Wilson's 14 points was applied in the Ukrainian People's
Republic as a development of the idea of self-government of national minorities. The
people of Ukraine were recognised by the government of the Central Rada as citizens
of the Ukrainian People's Republic as a whole.
The Bolsheviks had their own interpretation, which nominally recognised the right
of Ukrainians to self-determination, but which meant that this right could only be
realised by the Bolsheviks themselves, or by those who accepted their programme,
eff ectively denying the Ukrainians the right to self-determination and recognition.
Comparing the realisation of the right to self-determination in inter-war Lithuania,
the author's own interpretation of the right of peoples to self-determination in relation
to the Republic of Lithuania was the same as that of occupying Germany, which
consisted in recognising the independent Lithuanian state only as a state linked to the
German Reich by ties and conventions of a strong and permanent alliance and
agreements, especially in the military, transport, peacekeeping and energy sectors, as
well as the fulfi lment of the above-mentioned conditions.
The right of nations to self-determination, as well as other political and legal
instruments aimed at the independent political life of nationalities, ranging from the
free expression of will to sovereignty itself, have been subjected to considerable
pressures and tests in attempts to achieve other than immanent goals, especially in
attempts to legalise the policy of expansionism. The search for the protection of legal
and political instruments and mechanisms from political manipulation seems to be a
promising area for further research.
Key words: right to self-determination, self-government, sovereignty, Lithuania,
Ukraine.

References

1. Raic, David. Statehood and the Law of Self-Determination. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill | Nijhoff, 2002. URL: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047403388
2. President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points (1918). Milestone Documents. URL: https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-woodrow-wilsons-14-points
3. Raic, David. Statehood and the Law of Self-Determination. p. 182.
4. The Messages and Papers of Woodrow Wilson. Vol. 1, 1024, p. 475. Cited in: Raic, David.
5. Lenin, V. Pro pravo nacіj na samoviznachennja.
6. Raic, David. Statehood and the Law of Self-Determination.
7. Document 246. Outline of Tentative Report and Recommendations Prepared by the Intelligence Section, in accordance with Instructions, for the President and the Plenipotentiaries, January 21, 1919. In: Miller, David Hunter. My Diary. At the Conference of Paris. With Documents. Vol. IV. New York: Appeal Printing Company, 1924. pp. 223, 227–228.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Max Huber. The Island of Palmas (or Miangas) forms in its entirety a part of Netherlands territory. Reports of International Arbitral Awards, 1928. Published by United Nations, 2006.
11. Xenia Joukoff Eudin. The German Occupation of the Ukraine in 1918. The Russian Review. Vol. 1, No. 1, Nov. 1941, pp. 90–105. URL: https://doi.org/10.2307/125435, https://www.jstor.org/stable/125435
12. Römeris, Mykolas. Lietuvos konstitucinės teisės paskaitos, pp. 36–38.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ivanova, A. Kvazisuverenitet yak instrument ekspansionists’koyi polityky RF v istorychnij retrospektyvi. Pravova derzhava. Vyp. 34, Kyiv, 2023, pp. 189–201.