Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law

Mohammad Shahabuddin is Professor of International Law and Human Rights at Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham. He received a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (2018–20) for completing this monograph. His previous book, Ethnicity and International Law (Cambridge, 2016), offered the first ever comprehensive analysis of how ethnicity shaped international law.

• Part I: 1. Geneses of ethno-nationalism in postcolonial states; 2. Minorities and the 'ideology' of the postcolonial state; Part II: 3. The postcolonial 'national' state: boundaries and international law; 4. The postcolonial 'liberal' state: self-determination, minorities, and international law; 5. The postcolonial 'developmental' state: minority perspectives and international law; Conclusion.

'Mohammad Shahabuddin has now written a timely, theoretically informed, and empirically grounded book on the subject of ethno-nationalism, postcolonial states, and international law. It continues the pathbreaking work Shahabuddin began with his previous monograph Ethnicity and International Law (2016). His work deserves to be read by anyone interested in the fate of minorities and subaltern groups in postcolonial states.' B.S. Chimni, Foreword