Episode 009: 'Catalexit' - Will we ever exchange euros for Catalan-dollars?

Nomosphone: A Global Law Podcast

On Thursday 6 April, pending a decision on extradition, a German court decided to release the ousted Catalan President Puigdemont form detention on bail of 75,000 euros. However, it was not Puigdemont's hand painted Catalan-banknote that got him off the hook. Rather, despite the initial support of the rebellion charge by German prosecutors, the German judges found the charge by the Spanish government against Puigdemont to be ‘inadmissible’ since German law stipulates that such an offence would have to include ‘violence’, which appeared to be absent in ‘the case here’. However, the remaining charge of misuse of public funds is still to be considered in the court’s extradition decision. And since Puigdemont’s release, Spain is going through great lengths to provide Germany with new proof needed to support the rebellion charge against Puidgemont. In today’s episode, we’ll take a step back and zoom in on the recent rise of Catalonia’s independence movement. The main aim is to assess Catalonia’s chances of independence under current international law. Will Puigdemont ever fulfil his ambitions of possessing his very own Catalan-banknote? Consider this episode a walk-through of Catalonia’s claim under international law on statehood, but also under European law and domestic Spanish law. What do these bodies of law have to say about the claim? Is there any legal support to be found for the Catalan case? These are some of the questions we will be delving into. We thank our interviewees, Professor Hans Lindahl, Professor Morag Goodwin and Guayasén Marrero González for their meaningful contribution and enthusiastic participation in this episode. A special thanks to our supervisor Dr. Anna Marhold for guiding us through this project from the initial idea to the final editing process. This episode was produced by Gabriele Kuchenbecker, Natalia Moreno Belloso, and Dene Ahmad. Be sure to subscribe to our Soundcloud and Facebook pages to stay up to date on our most recent episodes. And if you like what we do, please leave us a review in iTunes - it really helps get the word out about Nomosphone! We acknowledge the use of Hindenburg and Audacity podcast editing software, and the use of the following music by Lee Rosevere’s (all under Attribution 4.0 International cc license) : ‘Night Caves’, ‘Tech Toys’, ‘Quizitive’, ‘Curiosity’, ‘Under Suspicion’ (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/3.0/legalcode.).