Secession refers to the process by which a territory and its population separate from the state to which they belong, to form a new and, in theory, better state.
For example, neither Spain, nor the United Kingdom, nor Canada contemplate this possibility within the legal framework, but every fully democratic country should regulate it in detail to avoid electoral fraud. Pedro Gómez, member of the association Monetary defense and people’s well-beingdescribes in his book The right of secession the process to follow (road map) before the referendum, the objectives and the conditions that must be met to exercise secession.
The constitution must regulate the right of secession
According to Pedro Gómez, any social group that has sufficient identity to assume obligations with the international community should enjoy the right to secede. And all this regardless of language, ethnicity, culture, religious denomination or history, among other aspects.
The constitutions of many countries have procedures for reforming different matters, but most of them do not have a law regulating this situation. Only the constitutions of Ethiopia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Uzbekistan and Liechtenstein provide for this right. While countries like Germany, UK, France, Canada and Spain lack this regulation.
To address this question, in Spain we must begin by proposing a Secession referendum. However, inside The right of secessionits author believes this should be the last step of the political phase and the first step of the administrative phase of the new state. As mentioned in the book, before submitting a proposal of this magnitude to a referendum, secessionist politicians should consider starting the political phase by preparing and approving a series of documents with a broad consensus in the sub-state Parliament.
What are the advantages of regulating the right of secession?
The book The right of secession raises some advantages of regulating this right. The most important of these is getting balance the principle of the rule of law and that of the popular will. It also emphasizes that it is a means to avoid the internationalization of the conflicta resource widely used by secessionists.
On the other hand, Pedro Gómez claims that the right of secession would allow the moderation of politicians of the host state when it legislates. And finally, it would serve to avoid economic stress. The latter is due to the fact that in all secession processes it is observed that economic activity suffers in the host state and in the nascent one, both in terms of new investments and economic activity.
According to the expert on Monetary Defense and People’s Welfare, this right is recommended as long as it aims to go beyond the level of security, justice and projection offered by the host state. In other words, the goal of every secessionist citizen must be the construction of a better society than the one he knows and lives in. Secession for a linguistic, cultural or racial issue makes little sense, for the reasons indicated in the art best seller. Only a society with better institutions than the host state justifies secession, and the proof of the prosecution is Switzerland.
