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The Department of Law and Legal Studies and the Jurisprudence Centre present

JurisTalk | Federalize This?

The crisis in Ukraine, the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the promise of the Canadian approach to secession

Friday, March 21, 2014
3:30pm | 1200 River Building

with Prof. Zoran Oklopcic

ukraineThe recent political crisis in Ukraine is unfolding at the interstice of high-stakes geopolitics, inflamed popular emotions and the looming questions of constitutional design. Given its ethno-political diversity and the involvement of great powers, a number of commentators have likened the crisis in Ukraine to the beginning of the violent dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. The talk will interrogate not only whether the post-conflict constitutional making in the former Yugoslavia has valuable lessons for Ukraine, but also whether the Canadian experience with the constitutional regulation of secession can provide the principled framework for defusing some of most explosive issues in the conflict, such as the status of the Crimean peninsula.