延边大学社会学开放性研究课题：对中国西藏社会问题的研究
为此，本文的主要目的是进行相对自主性和局限性的法律理论检查，在这样的大背景下，对西藏的进一步研究目标是：要确定如何使用国际法律制度和法律理论来评估中国和西藏之间的关系。在有关问题的特定宗旨和脉络指导下，首先要考虑到底什么问题才是“西藏问题”的本质。
To this end, the main aim of the thesis is to conduct an examination of the legal theory of self-determination and its limitations, and in doing so against the backdrop of Tibet further objectives are to ascertain how the international legal system and the legal theory on which it is premised have impacted on the relationship between China and Tibet. In contextualising the aims and objectives relating to the particular issue, it is first necessary to consider the nature of what may be termed 'the Tibet Question'.
在这篇dissertation的内容中，围绕着西藏问题，使得整个讨论过程变得很轻松，我们将通过研究这个问题的实质，去寻求一种潜在的发展途径。
These issues surrounding the Tibet Question will become apparent in the course of this thesis, and, in examining the substantive issues of the question, it will seek to analyse a potential way forward.
法律的权利，包括国际公法的主权和自决权，其中人权占有一个很重的份量。这些法律倾向于让西藏问题在所有的讨论中得以通过。
There is a great volume of literature on the subject of public international law, including sovereignty and self-determination, and also human rights. These works tend to consider Tibet, if at all, in passing.
Conversely, much of the literature on Tibet, in the legal and political context, focuses on the Tibet Question, or the Tibetan problem, and tries to fit this into international law perspectives of sovereignty or selfdetermination, or indeed to focus on human rights abuses.
The Tibet Question is one that centres on territory and control. It has various facets: it is about what is or should be the political status of Tibet - whether it is a part of China or historically an independent state; 5 whether it should be an independent state, and if so what is the extent of that state? If not an independent state, issues of its status within China arise. For Barry Sautman, the Tibet Question is 'one of the world's most intractable conflicts ... [inter alia] a long-running ethnic dispute that has persisted into the post-Cold War era of rising nationalism ... [and] a sovereignty dispute 5-6 Consequently it is a question at the nub of which is independence. However, commentators also focus on human rights issues, and hence the issue can become one of nationalism or ethno-nationalist struggle for self-determination. Melvyn Goldstein specifically refers to it as 'a conflict about nationalism - an emotion-laden debate over whether political units should directly parallel ethnic units'. 7 There are various ways of looking at the Tibet Question,8 some of which are more esoteric than others. The legal questions spill over into the political and into the religious, even into idealist Western concepts of Shangri-La, 9 and thus the debate and the participants in the debate take on an elusive quality, the shape of the debate yielding to a variety of pressures. For China the practical question, however, is one of territorial integrity, historical continuity as opposed to invasion, and one relating to interference by other states, and also human rights proponents, in the internal affairs of the People's Republic.
Two issues are paramount in the thesis: the first, the particular, relates to Tibet, and the second, on a general level, to self-detennination. Thus the principal objective of the thesis is to find out and understand why, in a rapidly changing world, Tibet has been unable to achieve the statehood and self-determination it seeks, while, at the same time, so many years after the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the Tibet Question remains unresolved.
As the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetans, enters his later years, ' 1a window of opportunity to achieve some form of reconciliation may become apparent to both China and Tibet. This may be given impetus by the People's Republic's desire to bring Taiwan back to the motherland; any burgeoning dispute with Tibet is likely to be counter-productive in this regard. Conversely, the Dalai Lama's death potentially gives impetus to the Tibetan independence movement, if the Dalai Lama is seen as a moderate brake on that movement. Increasing global terrorism in a fragile political international environment may impact on this independence movement.
There are therefore reasons to suppose the time is ripe for a full consideration of the Sino-Tibetan relationship, 12 and in so doing international law comes to the fore in the contexts of sovereignty, human rights and also the principal theory around which this thesis is constructed: self-determination. Self-determination as a principle has evolved during the last century, and particularly interesting developments have emerged in recent years culminating in the proposals of 2007 relating to the Kosovo Status Settlement, which have important potential implications for Tibet. Such an appraisal of the relationship between China and Tibet enables us to see the Tibet Question contextually as one concerned with sovereignty and territorial integrity over Tibet, 13 self-determination of the Tibetan people, and also human rights with reference to that people.
It also enables us to consider the implications for international law of the failure to resolve the issues surrounding the Tibet Question, in a scenario where the dynamic principle of external self-determination is on the cusp of extending its reach, exerting pressures on the norm of sovereignty, and what has seemed to be a bar on unilateral secession is called into question. http://ukthesis.org/shx/ Consequently, the analysis of selfdetermination becomes the general focus of the thesis.
This thesis, targeting a gap in the literature, approaches the subject in a different fashion. It analyses in depth the law relating to self-determination, taking that as the basis. The Tibetan situation is then examined, issues relating to sovereignty and human rights are considered, before conclusions are reached with regard to selfdetermination itself and also with regard to its impacts on the Tibet Question. In addition, the thesis seeks to clarify the appropriate focus for the question in the current climate.
