Glossary · canonical terms
கலைச்சொற்கள்Twenty-five terms in TLTE voice — definitions and limits
Twenty-five canonical terms used across the case file, each with a TLTE-voice definition, the named scholar or instrument it rests on, and a note on how it is used or abused. The glossary exists because terms like 'liberation struggle', 'state terrorism', 'genocide', and 'self-determination' carry specific legal meanings that the diaspora-political register often does not match.
Self-determination
தன்னுரிமை- Definition
- The right of a people to determine its political status and freely pursue its economic, social and cultural development. UN Charter Art 1(2) and Art 55; ICCPR + ICESCR common Art 1; UNGA 1514 (1960), 1541 (1960), 2625 (1970).
- Source
- Cassese 1995 · Crawford 2006
- How TLTE uses it
- Used in TLTE voice as a recognised principle of international law. Never used to assert that the Eelam case has satisfied the law's preconditions for any particular form of self-determination.
Internal self-determination
- Definition
- Self-determination exercised inside the existing state through meaningful political participation, autonomy, federalism or other constitutional arrangements. Quebec Reference §126.
- Source
- Quebec Reference 1998 · Cassese 1995
- How TLTE uses it
- The presumptive form. International law treats internal self-determination as the default route.
External self-determination
- Definition
- Self-determination exercised through separation from the existing state. Quebec Reference §126.
- Source
- Quebec Reference 1998
- How TLTE uses it
- Exceptional. Doctrinally available in (a) classical decolonisation, (b) alien subjugation, occupation or domination, and (c) the disputed remedial-secession category.
Remedial self-determination / remedial secession
- Definition
- External self-determination as a last resort where the parent state has comprehensively foreclosed meaningful internal self-determination. Quebec §134–§135; Cassese 5-test; UNGA 2625 safeguard clause.
- Source
- Aaland 1921 · Quebec 1998 · Kosovo AO 2010 · Cassese · Buchanan
- How TLTE uses it
- Disputed doctrine, not lex lata. TLTE uses the term to mark the doctrinal question; never to claim the right has been established for any case.
Non-international armed conflict (NIAC)
- Definition
- An armed conflict between a state and an organised armed group, or between such groups, meeting the Tadić threshold of (a) sufficient intensity and (b) sufficient organisation. Governed by Common Article 3 and Additional Protocol II.
- Source
- Common Art 3 · AP II · Tadić 1995 · ICRC commentary
- How TLTE uses it
- Legal category used in TLTE voice to mark the IHL framework that applies to the Eelam conflict for substantial periods.
International humanitarian law (IHL)
- Definition
- The branch of public international law that regulates the conduct of armed conflict and protects persons not (or no longer) taking direct part in hostilities. Geneva Conventions 1949 + Additional Protocols 1977.
- Source
- ICRC
- How TLTE uses it
- Distinct from the counter-terrorism legal regime. The ICRC documents the consequences of conflating the two.
War crimes
- Definition
- Serious violations of IHL, criminalised at international level under (in NIAC contexts) Common Article 3 and Rome Statute Article 8(2)(c) and (e).
- Source
- Rome Statute · ICTY/ICTR jurisprudence
- How TLTE uses it
- Used in TLTE voice only as an attribution of a Tier-A finding to the body that made it (e.g. 'the UN Panel of Experts 2011 records credible allegations of war crimes').
Crimes against humanity (CAH)
- Definition
- Acts forming part of a widespread or systematic attack against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack. Rome Statute Article 7.
- Source
- Rome Statute
- How TLTE uses it
- Same attribution rule as war crimes. Never asserted as a TLTE finding.
Genocide
- Definition
- Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such. Genocide Convention 1948 Article II.
- Source
- Genocide Convention
- How TLTE uses it
- Used only as the specific finding of a Tier-A body (e.g. the People's Permanent Tribunal Dublin 2010 finding) attributed to that body. The legal intent threshold is high; using the term loosely undermines its weight.
Structural violence
- Definition
- Avoidable harm caused by political, economic or institutional arrangements rather than by identifiable individual acts. Galtung 1969.
- Source
- Galtung · later peace-studies literature
- How TLTE uses it
- Used to describe the post-1948 constitutional record where direct causation cannot be evidenced but structural harm is documented.
State terrorism
- Definition
- A contested category in international law. Used in some academic literature (Blakeley, Stohl) to describe state conduct that meets the criminal-law definition of terrorism when committed by non-state actors. Not a category recognised in treaty law.
- Source
- Blakeley 2009 · Stohl & Lopez 1984
- How TLTE uses it
- Recorded as a contested scholarly category. Never asserted as a TLTE finding.
Majoritarianism
- Definition
- A political-system pattern in which the ethnic majority secures legal and institutional dominance through ordinary majoritarian processes, foreclosing meaningful minority political participation.
- Source
- DeVotta 2004 · 2022
- How TLTE uses it
- Used in TLTE voice to describe the post-1948 Sri Lankan constitutional pattern, citing the named scholarship.
Internal colonialism
- Definition
- A political-theory category for structural marginalisation of peripheral ethnic groups by a metropolitan state. Hechter 1975.
- Source
- Hechter 1975 · Wilson 1988 application
- How TLTE uses it
- One analytical frame among several. Not a TLTE finding.
De facto state
- Definition
- An entity that exercises effective governance over a defined territory and population but lacks international recognition. Four-element working definition: organised political leadership, capacity for effective governance, territorial control, stable population.
- Source
- Pegg 1998 · Caspersen 2012
- How TLTE uses it
- Used in TLTE voice as a descriptive category. Meeting the criteria does not generate a recognition entitlement.
Contested sovereignty
- Definition
- A doctrinal situation in which the legal authority over a defined territory is genuinely in question — typically because a NIAC has reached the Tadić threshold and the de facto / de jure positions have diverged.
- Source
- ICJ jurisprudence · IHL commentary
- How TLTE uses it
- Used in TLTE voice as a doctrinal frame, not as a finding.
Post-colonial state failure
- Definition
- A descriptive category for states whose institutional architecture, inherited at independence, has failed to meet the minority-protection and rule-of-law standards required for stable governance.
- Source
- Mamdani · Bayart · later state-failure literature
- How TLTE uses it
- Used cautiously. 'Failed state' is a contested label; we prefer the more specific structural reading.
Homeland
தாயகம்- Definition
- A people's territorial association rooted in continuous historical presence, linguistic and cultural memory, and institutional record. Distinct from the legal category of 'state'.
- Source
- TLTE Charter · /thayagam/
- How TLTE uses it
- Used in TLTE voice. 'Homeland' is not a sovereignty claim.
Tamil Eelam
தமிழ் ஈழம்- Definition
- The civilisational and political designation for the Tamil-majority North-Eastern territory of the island commonly known as Sri Lanka. As a TLTE term, it names a civilisational framework, not a state-in-waiting.
- Source
- Vaddukoddai Resolution 1976 · TLTE Charter
- How TLTE uses it
- Used in TLTE voice as civilisational designation. Never used to claim recognised statehood.
North-East merger
- Definition
- The administrative and political question of whether the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka constitute a single Tamil-speaking historical unit. Affirmed by the Indo-Lanka Accord 1987 and the Thirteenth Amendment; de-merged by Sri Lankan Supreme Court in 2006.
- Source
- Indo-Lanka Accord 1987 · SLSC 2006
- How TLTE uses it
- Documented as legal-history. Active reading by Tamil political tradition; live constitutional question in Sri Lanka.
Militarisation
- Definition
- The structural condition of a region under sustained military presence disproportionate to its civilian population, with attendant restrictions on civil and economic life.
- Source
- Adayaalam · PEARL · OHCHR · /unmai/desk/demilitarisation
- How TLTE uses it
- Used in TLTE voice with Tier-A sources cited verbatim. Never asserted as a number in TLTE voice.
Counter-terrorism narrative
- Definition
- The discursive pattern by which a political conflict is routed through the criminal-justice and security framework of one party, foreclosing alternative legal characterisations.
- Source
- Saul · UN SR CT
- How TLTE uses it
- Used analytically. Not a TLTE finding about any specific counter-terrorism operation.
Proscription
- Definition
- The administrative-legal act by which a state designates an organisation as terrorist under domestic statute (UK TA 2000 Sch 2; US FTO; EU CFSP; etc.). Procedure varies; the legal effect is criminalisation of support and association.
- Source
- UK TA 2000 · 8 USC §1189 · CFSP 2001/931
- How TLTE uses it
- Documented neutrally. TLTE does not lead deproscription litigation.
Civic vs political self-determination
- Definition
- TLTE-internal distinction. Civic self-determination = the institutional, cultural and economic agency a people exercises in stateless conditions. Political self-determination = the doctrinal question of constitutional status. TLTE practises the first; it does not adjudicate the second.
- Source
- TLTE Charter · /case/foundation
- How TLTE uses it
- Used in TLTE voice to mark the boundary the Charter sets.
Hybrid nation
- Definition
- TLTE doctrine. A constitutional form that treats a homeland + diaspora ecumene as a single civilisational unit, without standing army, with a transparency-native economy, and Charter-bound.
- Source
- /case/hybrid-nation
- How TLTE uses it
- TLTE doctrinal proposition. Not adopted by any state.
Honest Ceiling
- Definition
- TLTE editorial pattern. On every doctrine page in this cluster, the strongest sentence TLTE can honestly say is published next to the sentence that would be overclaim — so the reader can see the boundary.
- Source
- /case/framing
- How TLTE uses it
- Pattern, not a claim. Cite as tlte-cite:case-framing.
What this glossary is not
- · Not a full legal dictionary. Each term is the canonical TLTE-voice usage; specific litigation or scholarship will use narrower or broader senses.
- · Not a statement that TLTE endorses every framework it defines. Several terms (state terrorism, internal colonialism, national liberation movement) are recorded as scholarly positions with their critiques attached.
- · Not advice on how to use these terms in legal proceedings. Counter-terrorism legislation in particular is jurisdiction-specific.