Reflections on the ‘Statement on the Lack of Foundation on International Law of the Independence Referendum that Has Been Convened in Catalonia’ on the occasion of its third anniversary

Abstract

Three years ago, more than 400 members of the Spanish Association of International Law and International Relations Professors (AEPDIRI from the Spanish) signed the ‘Statement on the Lack of Foundation on International Law of the Independence Referendum that Has Been Convened in Catalonia’, dated 19 September 2017. With the perspective afforded by hindsight, this article will explore why it was a timely and necessary statement, reflecting the intellectuals’ civic responsibility to society, and why the statement’s concise content perfectly reflects the truth of contemporary international law.

Keywords

• principle of self-determination of colonial and occupied peoples
• principle of sovereign equality
• principle of territorial integrity
• separation of territories
• remedial secession
• independence referendum
• principle of self-organization
• rule of law
• european union