This is the big question we all ask ourselves when we approach the thorny Catalan question: Who is the owner of that piece of land called Catalonia, Catalonia, Catalonha, Catalonha, Catalonia, or Catalogne, for so many centuries now? Let us flee from outdated ideologies and sterile sentimentalism, from passionate partisanship and obsolete technicalities and let us try to give a reasoned, clear, clear, credible, coherent answer to the question: Does Catalonia belong to the Spaniards or to the Catalans? And if not, whose is it really?

With the Constitution in hand, there seems to be no doubt. Catalonia belongs to the Spanish people. And that is that. It can be affirmed that Catalonia belongs to the Catalans to the extent that the Catalans are Spaniards. Non-Catalan Spaniards have the same right of sovereignty over Catalonia as the Catalans themselves, since national sovereignty resides in the Spanish people and is indivisible. This is the constitutionalist answer.

The separatist answer is the opposite: Catalonia belongs to the Catalans, because Catalonia is a people, a complete political community, with its history, its institutions and its laws. Every people needs a land to settle and develop, which is called territory. The territory on which a people settles belongs to the people who inhabit it. As the Catalan people have lived in Catalonia for centuries, Catalonia belongs undeniably to the Catalans. The Catalan territory, therefore, by virtue of the right of self-determination of the peoples and by a principle of multi-secular settlement, belongs to the Catalan people. Not of the Spaniards.

In my opinion, the two answers, constitutionalist and separatist, although they use reasoned, solid and intelligent arguments, are flawed at the root, because the question itself is flawed. Catalonia belongs neither to the Catalans nor to the Spaniards, because on Earth, and Catalonia is part of the Earth, there is no property in the strict sense of the word. I will explain.

On the Earth, and this is the great contribution of global law, there is no sovereign and exclusive property, as modern international law has been maintaining for centuries, but a joint and several use, that is, a preferential right of use and enjoyment, which in no way can be considered exclusive or absolute. Modern International Law applied to the Earth the Roman principle of private property that grants the owner an absolute and exclusive right over the good, in our case, the territory. Thus, International Law considered the Earth, if I may use the comparison, as an immense and tasty round cake, susceptible of division into as many pieces as there are states. What happened to each piece of the cake, all of them of different sizes, was the responsibility of its owner, that is, of each state. If one state took a piece of its pie from another, the use of force was legitimized and, ultimately, the declaration of war, since there was no international authority superior to that of the state to settle conflicts between states. In each piece, I repeat, each state could do whatever it wanted: keep it, divide it, divide it, sell it, cede it (in the case of Gibraltar), and so on. In the great distribution of the cake, Catalonia entered into the piece called Spain. And it is no longer easy to change, since the distribution was consummated and the rules were sealed. Many Catalans think that they have an exclusive right to a specific piece of the Spanish cake because they constitute a people (principle of self-determination), but this argument is difficult to defend if the rules of current international law, in my opinion obsolete, are applied.

The revolution of the incipient global law consists in considering the Earth, if I may continue with the example, not as a cake divisible in as many pieces as states, but as a beautiful jewel of incalculable value, of indivisible character, that we have to take care of among all human beings for our own benefit and that of future generations. In truth, there are no quotas of ownership in the strict sense of the word, but only quotas of joint and subsidiary responsibility for the Earth's jewel. That is why, from agreement with the global law, the question is not whose is the Earth, whose is Catalonia or whose is Gibraltar, but who is manager of Catalonia, who takes care of Spain, who looks after Gibraltar, Syria or Europe in solidarity?

This territorial responsibility proposal by global law is not exclusive, like sovereignty, but inclusive, although, obviously, it admits Degrees and nuances. The greater the responsibility Degree the greater the right to use the land. The Catalans have a greater responsibility to make Catalonia bear fruit than the Spaniards, and the Spaniards than the Europeans, and the Europeans than the rest of humanity. The Catalans, therefore, have a greater right to make use of Catalonia than the rest of mortals. But nobody is the absolute owner of Catalonia: neither the Catalans nor the Spaniards. Therefore, in my opinion, the constitutionalist response is as wrong as the separatist one. The advantage of the constitutionalist response is that the Law plays in its favor. But Law is not everything, and may my jurist colleagues forgive me!

The Constitution erred, made a mistake, stumbled on the same step on which the separatist nationalists have also stumbled, who defend, without reason, that Catalonia is the exclusive property of the Catalans. Global law requires another dynamic, another approach to the problem, another approach of reality. Naturally, giving legal shape to what I say will require a constitutional reform, but what it requires above all is a change of political speech , a change of mentality, which will allow Catalonia to become an attractive and exciting common project , in which there are no winners or losers, no myths or thujisms, but only a firm and sincere desire for this precious part of the jewel of the Earth called Catalonia to shine in all its splendor.