Peoples, free self-determination and juridical pluralism. A critical socio-juridical approach to the cases of Puelmapu and the Principality of Catalonia

Abstract

This paper is about present trends in de-colonization, self-determination and/or independence processes of marginalized peoples-nations in the central states of world capitalism, and it deals with the cases of the Mapuche and the Catalan peoples-nations as a way of approaching the issue. To do so, we analyse the right to free self-determination—or to separate existence—of peoples-nations without an independent state, in plurinational states of under oppressive states, in the context of the present debates and theorisations about peoples and plurinational states, from the perspective of critical juridical pluralism. This study was carried out under the auspices of the Memory, Peoples and States Programme by the Secretariat of Institutional Relationships at the Centre for Research in Critical Law of the Faculty of Law and Social Science of the National University of La Plata, and under the sponsorship and support of the Copolis-Aldaquí Group for Juridical, Social and Cultural Action (Atlantic Delegation of the National University of Río Negro / Adalquí Foundation), the Solidarity with the Catalan Countries Group, and the Copolis Inter-University Group: Welfare, Community and Social Control (University of Barcelona).