Prolegomenon : prefatory words -- Introduction -- Public participation, autonomy and minorities 3 -- Territorial autonomy and international stability : pros and cons from the viewpoint of international law 47 -- Collective & individual set back to back : autonomy and the interplay of individual and collective dimensions in Article 27 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 63 -- Centralism and fiscal federalism 83 -- Social structure, social capital and institutional agreement : the Trentino-Alto Adige model 103 -- Local economic and community development as an aspect of the reconstruction of south-east Europe : bringing the local state back in 113 -- Territorial autonomy : permanent solution or step toward secession? 153 -- The role of autonomy in state-nation dialectic 161 -- Ambiguities in and clarifications of the concept of autonomy 177 -- Paradoxes of autonomy : tensions, traps and possibilities 191 -- The argument of cultural disadvantage 211 -- The right of a people to exercise their culture - a Scandinavian model 231 -- Autonomy (international guarantees of autonomy) 243 -- International criminal law : protection of minority rights 255 -- Cross-border cooperation as an indicator for institutional evolution of autonomy : the case of Trentino-South Tyrol 277 -- Participation and the Council of Europe's framework convention for the protection of national minorities (FCNM) 305 -- Autonomy and the effective participation of minorities in public life : developments in the OSCE 321 -- Indigenous rights and the promise of a limited autonomy model 337 -- The question of indigenous autonomy in Latin America 351 -- The protection of the rights of minorities by means of autonomy : the cases of the Aland and Kosovo 379 -- The autonomy of Eritrea (1952-62) : learning from the failed experience 401 -- A combined approach to autonomy : Estonian experience 421 -- Autonomy of Gagauzia : a post-Soviet experience 429 -- Autonomy : The Danish-German border region 457 -- Continued challenges, post-settlement, to the Cyprus conundrum 473 -- Strategies of ethnic conflict resolution : the Trentino-South Tyrol case and the Balkans 489 -- Experiments with autonomy in the United Kingdom since 1998 503 -- The status of autonomous territories in international organizations : experiences in Nordic and continental European co-operation 525 -- Minority rights and forms of autonomy in South Asia 541 -- Is there an emerging right to autonomy? : summary reflections, conclusions and recommendations 565