The juridification of the right to decide in Spain.

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The STC 42/2014, of 25 March, partially estimated unanimously the Government's appeal against the «Resolution 5/X of the Catalan Parliament, establishing the sovereignty and the right to decide Declaration approving the people of Catalonia» declaring unconstitutional and void «the first principle, according to which the people of Catalonia has, for reasons of democratic legitimacy, the nature of political and legal sovereign subject». However, the High Court declared constitutional references to right to decide on the citizens of Catalonia to not consecrate, in his view, a right of self-determination but not constitutionally recognized political aspiration through a narrow set of constitutional legality process with respect to the principles of «democratic legitimacy», «pluralism» and «legality». Thus, the reasoning of the Court not only dismissed the argument that the right to decide the citizens of Catalonia can only exist after completion of constitutional reform but also accepted the doctrine of the Supreme Court of Canada on secession Quebec, which appeals to the possibility that members of a political community can be defined on the basis of clear and freely formed majorities, its own legal and political framework. Nevertheless, the STC 42/2014, unlike the opinion of the Canadian Court did not answer the question of whether an advisory and agreed with the State, such as that posed by some catalan political parties on the political future of that territory referendum, has constitutional coverage. However, it contains enough elements which suggest that this is so. And that is precisely the core of the issue on which this paper focuses, from an examination of some of the possibilities offered by the Spanish constitutional order in this regard.