Morality and Legality of Secession

This book explores secession from three normative disciplines: political philosophy, international law and constitutional law. The author first develops a moral theory of secession based on a hypothetical multinational contract. Under this contract theory, injustices do not determine the existence of a right to secede, but the requirements to exercise it. The book’s second part then argues that international law is more inclined to accept and advance a remedial right approach to secession. Therefore, justice as multinational fairness is to be fully institutionalized under the constitutional law of liberal democracies. The final part proposes constitutionalizing a qualified right to secede with the aim of fostering recognition and accommodation of national pluralism as well as cooperation and compromise between majority and minority nations.

• secession and political philosophy
• secession and international law
• secession and constitutional law
• moral theory of secession
• justice
• multinational fairness
• demos
• moral argument
• self-determination
• Catalonia
• Scotland
• Quebec
• liberal-democratic context
• multinational contract
• minority nations
• international legal right
• international recognition
• multinational integration
• multinational stability
• unilateral secession

“A general theory such as the one Bossacoma proposes is nonetheless necessary to shape normative canons to address secessionism within liberal democracies. … A main concern in Bossacoma’s book is how to tame secessionism and prevent secession disputes from degenerating into violent conflict, as has too often happened in the building of new states …” (Hèctor López Bofill, The American Journal of Comparative Law, February 4, 2022)

“This work offers one of the most updated approaches to the issue of secession, both from a moral and a legal point of view. In a time where we are getting used to short and partial approaches to big topics, Bossacoma delivers a detailed and exhaustive insight to this issue from the two spheres of normative theories. The completeness of his approach allows him not only to present new perspectives on normative accounts of secession, but to build up a challenging, yet plausible, innovative framework for the morality and legality of secession that he labels Justice as multinational fairness.” (Jordi Jiménez Guirao, Ramon Llull Journal of Applied Ethics, Issue 12, 2021)

“The essay aims at reflecting upon the multifaced issue of secession and self-determination, starting from the reading of the recent volume Morality and Legality of Secession by Pau Bossacoma Busquets. Having blurry boundaries among academic disciplines, secession is analyzed (both separately and jointly) through different perspectives … . However, the goal of the book is not only to offer a comprehensive perspective on the matter but also to propose an alternative theory on secession based on a hypothetical multinational contract, building upon Rawlsian contractualism.” (Lidia Bonifati, Osservatorio Associazione Italiana dei Costituzionalisti, July 6, 2021)

“In his new book, Pau Bossacoma Busquets combines political theory and philosophy with perspectives from international and constitutional law and a variety of empirical, historical and contemporary case studies. Thereby, he presents a new theoretical framework for discussing the Morality and Legality of Secession (2020) in general and various theoretical, institutional and practical challenges presented by movements for independence in particular.” (Anna Meine, Las Torres de Lucca, lastorresdelucca.org, Vol. 10 (18), 2021)

“One of the book’s greatest virtues is its comprehensiveness: it attempts to answer all the major moral and legal objections raised against the justification of secession. Besides making a normative proposal, the book also functions as a descriptive balance of the theoretical debate about secession. In this sense, it is also an extremely informative book. … Bossacoma offers a justification for secession that is not only innovative from a theoretical point of view, but also appropriate for our times in the context of plurinational liberal democracies.” (Pau Luque, International Journal of Constitutional Law, December 5, 2020)

“Breaking new ground regarding the justification of secession, this book provides a novel and nuanced middle ground between two extremes: remedial right only theories which make serious injustices a necessary condition for justified secession and fail to take the value of self-determination seriously enough; and primary right theories that are so permissive in justifying secession as to create unacceptable incentives for strategic behavior and unacceptable risks of instability.” (Allen Buchanan, University of Arizona, USA) 

“This book builds upon a strong hinterland in political and constitutional theory to offer a thorough and deeply insightful review of the law of secession, spanning both international law and the constitutional law of a number of jurisdictions. It offers acute and detailed analysis of many of the practical difficulties that surround the constitutionalisation of the right to secede, while applying moral philosophical precepts with considerable subtlety in helping to inform and critique existing institutional arrangements. In combining political theory and law in such a capacious way the author offers perhaps the most comprehensive and sophisticated account of the law and practice of secession to date.” (Stephen Tierney, University of Edinburgh, UK) 

“In this book, Pau Bossacoma offers a new theory of secession. He challenges the prevailing views on this matter, which, he contends, fail to satisfy basic moral principles widely shared in liberal democracies. He makes a convincing case for the constitutionalization of certain rules and principles regarding secession. His defence of a qualified right of secession combines political philosophy and institutional design in an original and persuasive way. Anyone interested in this topic must certainly read this timely book.” (Víctor Ferreres Comella, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain, and University of Texas at Austin, USA)

• Department of Law, University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

  Pau Bossacoma Busquets

Pau Bossacoma Busquets is Lecturer in Public Law at Pompeu Fabra University, Spain, and legal advisor of the Catalan Government. He is a member of the UPF Political Theory Research Group, the Evolution of Institutions Observatory and the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law. He has authored several academic books, chapters and papers on constitutionalism, democracy, citizenship, nationalism, self-determination, sovereignty and territorial autonomy.

Policies and ethics