A constitutional referendum on secession from Indonesia was held in East Timor
in 1999, with a pro-independence vote triggering widespread violence by the
Indonesian army and pro-union militia. Montenegro underwent a similar process in
2006, also opting for independence but with much smoother results. This article will
suggest that the deliberative democratic principle of reciprocity can help deliver
referendum law based on justifications that can be accepted by all parties concerned. In
particular, it proposes that reciprocity can be operationalised in referendum law if the
participants in the negotiations that formulate the laws accept fair terms of social
cooperation (FTSCs) and resolve disagreements using economy of moral disagreement
(EMD). Respectively, these mean parties to negotiations should be willing to justify
their position in mutually acceptable terms and if consensus is impossible, agreements
should minimise their rejection of other parties’ views. This argument will be made
using the negotiations that created East Timor and Montenegro’s referendum laws as
case studies
