Legalizing secession: the Catalan case

Abstract

In this article we review the main theories of secession from a normative point of view relating them to the debate on the constitutionalization of secession and the Catalan case. Our conclusion is that secession conflicts are complex from the normative point of view since several issues related to justice and democracy are involved in them. For the Catalan case we defend the idea of adopting a constitutional or (quasi)constitutional approach as a peaceful and reasonable way to handle the secessionist debate. This arrangement would take into account what authors like Norman or Sunstein have suggested in their analysis. Secession can be considered by liberal-democracies as a way of solving territorial disputes, which need to be approached from a pragmatic and reasonable point of view.