Catalonia's determination to go ahead with a symbolic vote on independence from Spain on Sunday -- despite being banned by the nation's constitutional court -- now has an additional layer of legitimacy. Spain's ruling People's Party, which scuppered the Catalan version of "devo-max" four years ago, has turned out to be so sickeningly corrupt that it has no right to tell anyone what to do.
The legal arguments for and against Catalan independence can be kicked around endlessly. They are part of the dead-end debate about two mutually contradictory principles embedded in the United Nations Charter: territorial integrity and self-determination. Legal opinions on cases of unilateral secession -- Kosovo, Transnistria, Somaliland, the "assisted secession" of Crimea -- stress that international law calls for self-determination within the framework of existing states, except in cases when a "people" (whatever that may be) suffers from major rights violations inflicted by the state.
Read Full Article »