Public Law Studies Quarterly

Catalan Separatism from the Viewpoint of the Right of Self-Determination in International Law

Document Type : Article

Authors

Amin Karamzadeh 1
Massoud Alizadeh 2
Shahram Zarneshan 3

1 AM. student of International Law, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor of International Law, Department of Law, Payam Noor University, Semnan, Iran

3 Associate Professor, Faculty of law and Political Science, Allameh tabataba’I University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22059/jplsq.2020.305151.2479
Abstract
This article analyzes the crisis of secession in the Catalan region of Spsin in terms of  the right to self-determination in international law. The focus of this paper is on the application of this rule to non-colonial situations. While applying the right to self-determination in colonial situation is well-established and the people of these lands can create their own government under this rule, serious doubts have been raised about the right of self-determination outside the colonial situations. There is no consensus about the right to remedial secession under international law. This article tries to examine the customary law and the most important international instruments dealing with the right to self-determination, in particular the right of Catalan ethnic minority in Spain to form a new state. It is concluded that the Catalan authorities’ reliance on this right for declaring independence faces serious legal difficulties.

Keywords

Catalonia
self-determination
remedial secession
unilateral secession
Resolution 2625
Spain

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Public Law Studies Quarterly
Volume 52, Issue 2
Summer 2022
Summer 2022
Pages 943-963

  • Receive Date 26 June 2020
  • Revise Date 28 July 2020
  • Accept Date 06 December 2020

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