About the speaker: Josep Maria Castellà Andreu, associate professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Barcelona and habilitation for full professor. PhD in Constitutional Law by the University of Barcelona, with extraordinary award and “European Doctor” mention (1996). Director of the “Group of studies on Democracy and Constitutionalism” (GEDECO). His main fields of research are democracy and political participation; and comparative federalism and Spanish decentralization. Lately he has been focusing on the legal aspects of the secession of territories in Western countries, particularly Quebec and Catalonia, publishing some papers in Spain and Italy. He has done academic stays at universities as Università di Pisa, Université de Montréal, Senshu University (Tokyo), Universidad de Chile and Boston College. Currently he is a member of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe for Democracy through Law.

About the event: Within the last few years, legal secession has generated a lot of discussion in Spain and the U.K. After the Scottish referendum in 2014 and with general elections looming up this year in Spain and the U.K., legal secession promises to be a topic that will fill much of the public debate. We are very glad to welcome Prof. Castellà in the first Madariaga Colloqium to speak to us about the legal and political challenges that legal secession faces in Western countries. In particular, he will focus on the cases of Scotland and Catalonia. The purpose of the Colloquium is to create a space where attendees will be able to engage in meaningful discussions with our guest speaker in the spirit of Oxford tutorials. For that reason, Prof. Castellà will deliver a short presentation of approximately 30 minutes thus leaving plenty of time for questions and comments from the audience. The title of the talk will be “El reto de la secesión en Europa: perspectivas desde R.U. y España”. The talk and the discussion will be conducted in Spanish. We will welcome Prof. Castellà at the Massey Room in Balliol College on Thursday, 7th May, at 17:30. If you would like to attend the event, please register here.

Registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1PYlkxyAajYnvbbBKl2-WtZvGiAuj1j231M7o1gx...