Secession is a live issue in today's Western Europe. In the last decade, we have witnessed the consolidation of pro-independence movements in Scotland and Catalonia and in the near future, we might see their re-emergence or the rise of other pro-secession movements in other European regions. The response of the EU institutions to secession within EU Member States may well be based mainly on political considerations. However, since the EU is a community based on the rule of law, it has also to justify its position with normative arguments of principle. Secession and European Union Law provides such normative support, drawing on a pluralist reading of the relation between EU law and national law, to support the conclusion that EU law should respect domestic constitutional orders. This book studies secession within EU Member States through legal methodology: the theoretical-doctrinal analysis of concepts and institutions, considering the evolving reality and case law. The legal approach has three dimensions, given the three different legal orders that interact at the EU level: international law, EU law and national constitutional law. Based on Article 4 (2) TEU, the central claim of this book is that the EU duty to respect national identity and fundamental constitutional structures generate obligations to respect Member States' constitutional orders, provided that the values enshrined in the Article are not violated by the Member State affected. Topical and original, Secession and European Union Law reviews and rethinks key features of the EU and the EU legal order.

The first book to jointly analyse withdrawal of a member state from the EU (i.e. Brexit) and territorial secession.

With the referenda on possible Scottish and Catalan independence and the electoral successes of the Flemish pro-independence movement, secession of part of a EU Member State has become a real possibility that cannot be ignored any longer. The driving forces behind the referenda seek independence but they do not seek withdrawal from the Union. This is a scenario without precedent. An exploration of its legal and political aspects is therefore a timely matter. In this collection of think pieces a number of experts from both public international law and European Union law present their thoughts on key aspects of Secession within the Union.

The book comprehensively discusses legal and political issues of non-recognized entities in the context of international and European Law, combining perspectives of international and European law with those of the non-recognized entities themselves.

Today, for the first time in the history of the EU, political and legal scholarship has focused on routes that could lead to the exit of a Member State from the European Union. This book provides a detailed discussion of the legal prerequisites, process and specific issues arising from a Member State’s exit from the EU. This may take the form of a voluntary withdrawal under Article 50 TEU, such as in the case of “Brexit”, or from the Eurozone, as was discussed in the case of Greece. However, it could also occur in the form of a “forced” exit, including expulsion due to an infringement of fundamental rules, or secession—the most relevant example at present being Catalonia. Legal scholars, practitioners and students, as well as political scientists and anyone interested in what the future holds for European integration, will find this book particularly relevant.

This volume purports to explore the legal and political issues triggered by the new wave of secessionism. More specifically, those issues concern the interplay between notions of democracy (and democratic ends and means) and law (and the rule of law and constitutionalism). Against this background, the editors use amorality in order to escape the terrain of the justification of secession by making a distinction between the democratic theory of secession and the theory of democratic secession. In the first section, the theoretical nexus democracy-secession has been approached both from a legal and political theory perspective. The second section of the book examines the instruments that the theory of democratic secession invokes in order to justify secession and presents both legal and political science contributions. The third section focuses on social movements and political actors. The fourth section focuses on two case studies due to the awareness of the importance of the difference between secession in a democratic occidental context (which call into play the discussion of the democratic theories) and separations in a non-democratic context (where the nexus between secession and democracy is not really central).