Arguably, other forms of autonomy also exist than territorial autonomy with law-making powers, such as personal autonomy, cultural autonomy and functional autonomy as well as autonomies with administrative or regulatory powers. The existence of such diff erent forms of autonomy should be kept in mind when the term ‘autonomy’ is used and the context of the usage of the term should be made clear. In addition, the interface between territorial autonomy with law-making powers on the one hand, and federal organization on the other is explored, the point being that a more coherent theoretical approach to territorial autonomy on the one hand and federalism on the other should be developed.
For an attempt to establish an institutional content for personal autonomy, it is submitted that the reference to 'community' in Article 27 of the CCPR implies a certain form of organization. Persons who belong to minorities shall have the complete freedom to organize themselves in associations of various kinds in order to pursue common aims. Th e notion of 'association' includes, on the top of regular membership associations, a broader spectrum of private law entities, but the main point is that there shall be a freedom for a minority in the creation of nongovernmental organizations, leading to personal autonomy as an organizational form. It is hence not necessarily so that all forms of autonomy are created on the basis of special legislation, endowing the autonomous character for the minority institution from top-down. A bottom-up creation of minority institutions can actually involve a right to personal autonomy.
It is possible to distinguish functional autonomy, consisting of various administrative arrangement, as a specifi c form of autonomy on the top of territorial, cultural and personal autonomy. Functional autonomy may be understood as an organizational option for the provision of adequate linguistic services to a minority population in respect of a certain public function (such as education) by means of creating special linguistically identifi ed administrative units at diff erent hierarchical levels inside the general line-organization charged with the national or local administration of the public function. Language (and sometimes even religion) can be used as a divisor by which the principle of 'separate but equal' is implemented in ways that defy organizational characterizations commonly found in textbooks of administrative law or public administration. Functional autonomy is a pragmatic approach to the promotion of rights of a minority population and could be more commonly used.
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