CONTRARY to Iain Macwhirter’s opinion (“Spain must stop breaking heads and should let the Catalans vote”, The Herald, October 18), international law does not provide "clear" support for the Catalan Government's attempts to hold an independence referendum. For the most part, independence referenda are legal because the larger state (for example Canada, the UK) has legalised them.

The only exceptions are where separation is required by exceptional circumstances, such as the history of severe human rights abuses in Kosovo and East Timor. Whatever can be said of the police tactics in Catalonia on October 1, they are not in this category.

However sincere and deeply held is the Catalan sense of national identity, international law does not support secession from Spain in a case where Spanish law prohibits it. Most would agree that the principle of self-determination is largely fulfilled by the existing arrangements for Catalan autonomy.

For this reason, European sympathy for the Catalan nationalists' recent actions has not been forthcoming, and this is unlikely to change.

Martin Graham,

10 Bressenden Place, London.