In response to the Camp David Framework for Peace in the Middle East, which specified that transitional arrangements for the West Bank and Gaza be based on full autonomy for the inhabitants, the Faculty of Law of Tel Aviv University brought together a group of experts--lawyers, historians, and political scientists--in the hopes of contributing to the success of the negotiations. More than one dozen papers identify and analyze models of autonomy, past and present.

Introductory essays on the theoretical concept of autonomy supplement a survey of various autonomous arrangements in...