  A second important distinction is between being justified in seceding unilaterally and have a (claim-) right to unilateral secession. It is not always clear whether a theorist is advancing a theory of the conditions under which secession is morally justified (that is, the conditions under which a group has a moral liberty-right or mere moral permission to secede), or a theory of the conditions under which a group has the claim-right to secede unilaterally. Talk about “the right to secede” is often ambiguous between these alternatives. A claim-right includes not only a liberty-right or mere permission (i.e., that a group is justified in seceding in the sense that if they do so they do not thereby act impermissibly), but also a correlative obligation on the part of others not to interfere with the attempted secession.