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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | The law and the political debates in Lesotho: an assessment of the retrocession and integration discourses |
| Author: | Mahao, Nqosa Leuta |
| Year: | 1993 |
| Periodical: | Lesotho Law Journal: A Journal of Law and Development (ISSN 0255-6472) |
| Volume: | 8 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 59-74 |
| Language: | English |
| Notes: | biblio. refs. |
| Geographic terms: | Lesotho South Africa Southern Africa |
| Subjects: | foreign policy national territory law political science land |
| Abstract: | The Kingdom of Lesotho is an independent sovereign State and a member of the OAU and the UNO. This legal autonomy, however, obscures the dependent status of the country. It is small in size, geographically totally surrounded and economically dependent on the Republic of South Africa. Its existence therefore is dogged by tension between legal independence on the one hand and economic dependency on the other. It is in the context of this reality that two competing propositions about Lesotho's future are canvassed here. The first proposition envisages the engagement of South Africa in negotiations for the restitution of land originally belonging to the Sotho nation (the retrocessionist discourse). The second proposition postulates a merger between Lesotho and South Africa now that the latter has achieved a democratic political system (the integration discourse). The article first describes the current debate in Lesotho about these options. Then it examines the political and legal implications of the two options, particularly by looking at the principles of international law concerning the settlement of territorial disputes. The conclusion is that a whole gamut of international law principles inclines against the retrocessionist discourse. Ref. |