On the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination

Le Regard Libre N° 34 - Clément Guntern

The events of recent months in Spain, and more particularly in Catalonia, have brought back to the forefront a principle of international public law forged in the last century that Catalan independence fighters wish to apply in their own country: the principle of self-determination.

The Catalan question is surrounded by principles that must be handled with great caution, as they lie at the heart of the current international structure—one that was so painstakingly established after centuries of war. These principles govern two distinct entities that have often been at odds with one another and have fought against each other, but which, one way or another, had to be reconciled as best as possible. These are the state and the people.

To illustrate just how difficult it is to create states out of peoples, one need only consider the thinking of earlier eras