2nd International Conference on “Building a New State”

“Democracy and rule of law are concepts that are constantly evolving”, said professor of Constitutional Law, Ferran Requejo, today at the presentation of the 2^nd International Conference on Building a New State, to be held this Friday, October 5 at the Pedrera Auditorium in Barcelona and organized by the Sobirania iJusticia Foundation (SiJ – Sovereignty & Justice) with the support of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), the Association of Municipalities forIndependence (AMI), Help Catalonia and the Vila-Casas Foundation.

Mr. Requejo also questioned whether the rule of law established in 1978 (the date of enactment of the current Spanish Constitution) was sufficiently democratic, or whether in 2012 the criteria for “democratic sufficiency” should remain as at the time of Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy.

The event was presented by the Vice President of the Sobirania i Justícia Association, Isabel-Helena Martí, along with Ferran Requejo, Elisenda Paluzie, the Dean of the College of Economics and Business of the University of Barcelona, and legal expert Ricard Gené, a member of the Secretariat of the ANC. They will chair different round-tables to discuss the political, economic and legal aspects of the current state-building process initiated in Catalonia by supporters of Catalan sovereignty.

 

Juan Jose Ibarretxe (former Lehendakari or prime minister of the Government of the Basque Country), Joze Mencinger (Economic Vice-President to the first democratic government of Slovenia), Daniel Turp (Quebecois politician and Professor of International Law at the University of Montreal), and Stephen Tierney (Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Edinburgh) are among the main speakers at the event, and who will analyse particularly the cases of Slovenia, Quebec and Scotland in order to draw useful conclusions for Catalonia.

Ms. Martí said that the experience of these countries shows that Catalonia's case is no aberration or eccentricity, before professor Paluzie highlighted that despite economic threats from those opposing independence, “the economic and trade balances of European countries that have recently gained independence (Slovenia, Slovakia, etc.) has been positive.”

Meanwhile, Ricard Gené explained that there will be open and closed sessions, le latter being reserved for groups of participants especially invited by the organization in response to their specific civil and professional interests.

Sovereignty and Justice was founded in 2009 with the aim of promoting independence for Catalonia and making Catalan society aware of the need for and feasibility of achieving this by peaceful and democratic means.