Sujit Choudhry Drafts an Open Letter on Catalonia: A Plea for Dialogue Between the Spanish and Catalan Government Heads
Choudhry and several international and constitutional law scholars composed an open letter on Catalonia urging the Spanish and Catalan government leaders to negotiate and compromise
BERKELEY, Calif., Oct. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CT director Sujit Choudhry, together with several other international and constitutional law scholars, composed an open letter on Catalonia's recent constitutional crisis. The letter is a plea for dialogue to the heads of the Spanish and Catalan governments, in which Choudhry and the collaborating scholars urge the leaders to act in good faith and open-minded constitutional dialogue.
The letter also calls upon Catalonia's president, Mr. Puigdemont, to demonstrate his sincere commitment to dialogue by acknowledging the concerns of those who are doubtful of his government's democratic mandate to pursue the secession of Catalonia. The scholars not only propose that the best means by which to achieve the aforementioned is to organize a referendum that would reflect the hopes of the Catalan people, but they also urge Spain's prime minister, Mr. Rajoy, to recognize those aspirations as legitimate and refrain from suppressing them. The scholars urge the leaders of both sides to accept a popular referendum as the best way to understand the challenges that Catalan hopes for independence pose to the Spanish constitutional order. The letter ultimately calls for both sides to focus on reaching a negotiated constitutional settlement, which would honor everyone's constitutional rights and demonstrate concern for Catalan political aspirations.
Sujit Choudhry is the founding director of the Center for Constitutional Transitions and an I. Michael Heyman Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked as constitutional advisor to emerging democracies across the world. He is currently also a member of the United Nations Mediation Roster and was a consultant to the World Bank Institute at the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program.
Professor Choudhry coordinated the letter together with Robert Howse, Lloyd C. Nelson Professor of International Law at the New York University School of Law, Zoran Oklopcic from the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University, and Asanga Welikala, the Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law as well as the Lecturer in Public Law at the University of Edinburgh School of Law.
The Center for Constitutional Transitions assembles and leads international networks of experts to conduct thematic research projects that offer evidence-based policy options to practitioners. This is part of the Center's effort to create and mobilize knowledge in support of constitution building. It has several global collaborations and partnerships with multilateral organizations, think tanks, NGOs and universities. Through the Center's partnership with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Choudhry co-leads three global collaborative research projects. These include "Dealing with Territorial Cleavages in Constitutional Transitions", "Security Sector Reform and Constitutional Transitions in Emerging Democracies", and "Security Sector Oversight: Protecting Democratic Consolidation from Authoritarian Backsliding and Partisan Abuse".
About Sujit Choudhry:
Sujit Choudhry, the I. Michael Heyman Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley Law School, is an internationally recognized authority on comparative constitutional law. He has in-depth field experience as an advisor to constitution building processes, including in Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Ukraine and Yemen. He has lectured or spoken in over two dozen countries. Professor Choudhry's research addresses a broad variety of issues in comparative constitutional law.
About the Center for Constitutional Transitions:
The Center for Constitutional Transitions generates and mobilizes knowledge in support of constitution building by assembling and leading international networks of experts to produce evidence-based policy options for decision-makers and agenda-setting research, in partnership with a global network of multilateral organizations, think tanks, and NGOs. It has worked with over 50 experts from more than 25 countries.
SOURCE Center for Constitutional Transitions
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