Supervisors:

• Dr Kieran Oberman (Politics & IR)
• Dr Elizabeth Cripps (Politics & IR)

Research project:

Most theories of territory are interested in the relationship between the state, its citizens and its territory. However, since outsiders are not sufficiently considered, they have problems justifying the right to exclusion which is one element of territorial rights. Theories of immigration that take the interests of outsiders seriously, on the other hand, have tended to give little attention on territory as a relevant object of analysis. Lea Ypi’s permissive theory of territorial rights is a rare exception. In her work, Ypi offers a moral principle that encompasses the relationship between all four entities (the state, its citizens, its territory, and outsiders). She argues that a state is permitted to establish territorial rights at a specific point in time only as long as it contributes to the realization of global justice. This thesis project will advance from Ypi’s insight. I will develop Ypi’s permissive theory by defining the content of the obligation that states owe towards outsiders to justify territorial rights.

Before starting my PhD at the University of Edinburgh, I took an MA in International Studies at Seoul National University, and a BA in Philosophy and Business Studies at the University of Mannheim. I was a exchange student at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies in 2012.

Publications:

Buechel, B. (2017) A Presumptive Right to Exclude: From Imposed Obligations To A Viable Threshold, Global Politics Review, vol. 3, issue 1.

Buechel, B. (2014) Liberal Japan needs to drown out revisionist voices, East Asia Forum, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University