Pérez Lozano, LuisSanjaume Calvet, Marc2025-03-042025-03-042013Pérez L, Sanjaume M. Legalizing secession: the Catalan case. Journ of Confl. 2013 Oct 15;4(2):3-12. DOI: 10.7238/joc.v4i2.19102013-8857http://hdl.handle.net/10230/69788In 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.application/pdfengThe texts published in this journal are – unless indicated otherwise – covered by the Creative Commons Spain Attribution 3.0 licence. You may copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the work, provided you attribute it (authorship, journal name, publisher) in the manner specified by the author(s) or licensor(s). The full text of the licence can be consulted here: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/deed.en.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.7238/joc.v4i2.1910AscriptivismCataloniaConstitutionIndependencePlebiscitarianismQuebecRationalityReasonablenessRemedialismRight to decideSecessionSelf-determinationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess