Abstract
The chapter analyzes the constitutional framework in which the Catalan secessionist process has developed. It starts by focusing on international law, particularly on the right to self-determination of peoples as established in the UN treaties and case law, and on the so-called remedial secession, and later sums up the two main foreign experiences of secessionism (Québec and Scotland), as well as two relatively minor cases in Bavaria and in Veneto, highlighting the similarities and the differences in respect to Spain and Catalonia. The barring by the Spanish Constitutional Court in 2014 of the “right to decide” and of any kind of referendum on independence is also discussed. The chapter ends with an assessment of the role the EU has played in the secessionist process, particularly of the issue of whether an independent Catalonia would automatically remain in the EU (applying the so called “internal enlargement”), or rather would leave it, and also of the position of relative neutrality adopted by the Commission.
Keywords
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Report of the Commission of Rapporteurs, League of Nations Council, Doc B7 21/68/106, 1921: see https://www.ilsa.org/jessup/jessup10/basicmats/aaland2.pdf.
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See the Advisory Opinion of the ICJ of 22 July 2010, Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Respect of Kosovo, available at http://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/141/141-20100722-ADV-01-00-EN.pdf.
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See the official documents in http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/Const/Const_index.html.
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See https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/08/david-cameron-defends-decision-scottish-independence-referendum. Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd.
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See the decision (in German) in http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Entscheidungen/DE/2016/12/rk20161216_2bvr034916.html.
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Available in English at http://www.parlament.cat/web/documentacio/altres-versions/resolucions-versions.
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Available in English at http://www.parlament.cat/web/documentacio/altres-versions/resolucions-versions.
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An English version is available at http://www.tribunalconstitucional.es/es/jurisprudencia/restrad/Paginas/STC42-2014.aspx.
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See “Statement on the events in Catalonia ” from October 2nd 2017, available at http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-17-3626_en.htm.
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See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/13/eu-intervention-in-catalonia-would-cause-chaos-juncker-says. Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd.
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See the article “Carles Puigdemont calls for Catalonia to leave EU”, at https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/puigdemont-calls-for-catalonia-to-leave-eu-zsfj96ph0.
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Beltrán de Felipe, M. (2019). Constitutional and Comparative Analysis of the Catalan Secessionist Process. In: Myths and Realities of Secessionisms. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11632-3_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11632-3_2
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