The article explores the contested claims for sovereignty of Abkhazia
through the lens of secession. It maps the evolution of the law on
secession from the early 20th century to the present, with an attempt to
find a doctrinal fit to the claims of Abkhazian secession from Georgia.
The article suggests that rather than reflecting any of the existing
modalities for legal or legitimate secession, Abkhazia together with
other cases stemming from the post-Soviet space constitute a sui generis
modality for secession. The article argues that this modality has a
particularly tragic outcome for all of its participants, sentencing the
secessionist regions in the post-Soviet space to a permanent state of
flux.