In this paper, I defend a self-determination based argument for an upper limit on the appropriation and exploitation by each state and its citizens of natural resources within their territory and jurisdiction. Self-determination, on this account, is a freedom to which all self-determining agents have an equal right and which, accordingly, involves the duty on each not to undermine the freedom of others. Because certain natural resources – specifically such that are needed for production of food and energy – are scarce and all-purpose goods, their permissible appropriation and exploitation by each ought to be restricted by the equal claim to freedom of all others. Under plausible assumptions on the current state of environmental affairs, this upper limit is rather demanding.
The egalitarian interpretation of the principle of self-determination proposes a third way in current debates on resource rights between proponents of permanent sovereignty over natural resources and those in favour of delegating resource rights of jurisdiction and management to transnational and global governance agencies. This third way favours, in principle, the designation of each self-determining polity as the primary (or near exclusive) holder of jurisdiction over the natural resources in its territory and at the same time gives rise to demanding rules on how this jurisdictional power may and may not be exercised.
* Author’s affiliation:
Center for Advanced Studies “Justitia Amplificata”, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main
School of Political Sciences, The University of Haifa
