"The denial of the right to secede from a voluntary union is itself a primary justification for secession"
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Theories of Secession
Primary Right of Secession
Holds that a group has a basic right to secede regardless of whether injustices have been committed or not. This is also called unilateral right secession.
Nationalist Variant of Primary Right
Holds that every nation (territorially contiguous ethnic/cultural group) has the right to establish its own state (country) if they choose and may do so unilaterally and without any other justification..
Liberal Primary Right
Holds that because government’s legitimacy derives solely from consent, any group of people may withdraw their territory from an existing state and set up a new state, so long as a majority of the group agrees and the rights of the minority are respected in the new state.
Remedial Right Only
Holds that a national group enjoys a unilateral right to secede if and only if its members have suffered serious, fundamental injustices and secession is the only alternative left to remedy those injustices. RRO theories strictly confine the right to secede to a small set of cases.
Partial Right Variant of Remedial Right
An expansion of the former with conditions. Anthony Birch states that one of the following prior conditions must be present for secession to be justified:
1. the seceding region was included in the state by force and its people have displayed a continuing refusal to give full consent to the union;
2. the national government has failed in a serious way to protect the basic rights and security of the citizens of the region;
3. the democratic system has failed to safeguard the legitimate political and economic interests of the region, either because the representative process is biased against the region or because the executive authorities contrive to ignore the results of that process;
or
4. the national government has ignored or rejected an explicit or implicit bargain between sections that was entered into as a way of preserving the essential interests of a section that might find itself outvoted by a national majority.
Anthony H. Birch, "Another Liberal Theory of Secession," Political Studies 32 (1984): 596-602.
Holds that in the United States a contract (compact) exists between the federal government and the various states. This theory is best articulated by John C. Calhoun (although Calhoun did used the term compact rather than contract) and was the bedrock behind the states of the former Confederacy declaring their independence. This theory is easily combined in application with the above theories in various circumstances.
Next - Application of Secession Theories
North American * Secession and Independence Movements
*Hawaii and Puerto Rico are obviously not part of North America, no offense intended
Active Secession Movements Around the World
One Nation Indivisible? A Study of Secession and the Constitution