Self-Determination as Result or Process

Self-determination can be understood in different ways as result or process. The former points at the self , however defined, determining a status and rights once and for all. Process, on the other hand, has a constant or at least continuing element. Here, the self is part of the process of determining a number of things such as economic, social and cultural development. 

On the other hand, Hurst Hannum portrays decolonization as a one-time right when he says that when self-determination has been exercised once, it cannot be claimed again. At the time, self-determination was regarded a result. The colonies could decide their fate once and for all. It was a matter of one person, one vote, one time. Afterwards, the territorial integrity of the new states barred all further claims to self-determination. 

Some phrases have been repeated in a number of documents on self-determination. Res. 1514, the Covenants and the FRD all speak of the right to determine the political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. The two terms status and development have very different connotations attached to them. While status is something permanent and non-changing, development per definition is not permanent. Development is something that 

Committee of Jurists (1920) Report of the hitemational Committee of Jurists Entrusted by the Council of the League of Nations with the Task of Giving an Advisory Opinion upon the Legal Aspects of the Aaland Islands Question, Official Journal, Supplement No. 3, pp. 3-19, at p. 12. Higgins (1994), p. 120. See also Heintze (2004), p. 295. 

International Court of Justice (1975) Western Sahara Advisory Opinion of 16 October 1975 I.C.J. Reports 1975, pp. 12, para. 70. 

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