The East Timor Story: International Law on Trial Catriona Drew Full text available: PDF format * Abstract This article considers the story of East Timor in the light of the international legal rules on self-determination. It is argued that such an analysis is both timely and necessary. For more than 20 years, international lawyers have brought the force of international legal norms to bear upon the `Question of East Timor'. This article aims to do the reverse: to bring the force of the East Timorese debacle to bear upon international law. The argument proceeds in three parts. Part 1 considers the legal basis for East Timor's right of self-determination. Part 2 argues that, contrary to its populist characterisation as excessively indeterminate, the right of self-determination has a discernible core content which confers on beneficiary peoples, such as the East Timorese, two distinct sets of entitlements: self-determination as process, and self-determination as substance. Finally, having established the basic legal framework, Part 3 compares two moments of high-level institutional engagement with (the two aspects of) East Timor's self-determination entitlement: the case brought by Portugal against Australia before the ICJ in 1995; and the UN-sponsored `popular consultation' of August 1999. It is argued that the institutional shift from the ICJ to the UN was also characterised by a shift from formalism to pragmatism, and that both institutions failed to uphold the international legal rights of the East Timorese. * The free viewer (Acrobat Reader) for PDF file is available at the Adobe Systems.
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