The Generalitat of Catalunya and the Spanish Republic. Sovereignty, self-determination and agreement in the Catalonia-Spain relationship

Abstract

The legal report The Generalitat de Catalunya and the Spanish Republic represents a unique milestone among a number of proposals to articulate relations between Catalonia and the Spanish State that have taken place since the 18th century, because it is not intended to fit Catalonia into an autonomic or federal structure of the Spanish State, but to establish a relationship between equals between the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Government of the Spanish Republic. For this purpose and based on the implementation of general law precepts and reference points of public international law and comparative law, it supports the recognition of a limited sovereignty of Catalonia, defined by the Statute of Autonomy as a relational rule between the State and the Generalitat. The purpose of this line of reason is to give legal support to the validity of the Statute of autonomy of Catalonia approved in a referendum in 1931 and to the agreements that the Generalitat and the Spanish Republican Government had established since the proclamation of the Republic, against the introduction in Catalonia of the «Integral State» model provided for in the 1931 Constitution.