  The right to secede, of course, necessarily entails a right to the territory on which the secessionists intend to establish their own independent state. This territory will be taken, without consent, from the original state. What gives the secessionists a stronger claim to territory than that of the original state? How can the right to self-determination plus the desire of the majority for independent statehood both general a territorial claim and cancel a legitimate state’s claim to the same?