Dear Albena,

First of all, as I tell my students, I have a name. It would be nice if you would have addressed me by my name.

As I told you in another forum, comparing the (in your view illegitimate actions of Rajoy) with the (openly) illegal actions of the separatists leaders is a bit of a stretch. But I don’t want to discuss here your views and those of the co-signatories. They are perfectly legitimate. I am just concerned that your letter wants to make a political statement under legal considerations. If you think that the Spanish Government has mismanaged this crisis, just say so. If you think the use of force by the Police was disproportionate denounce it too. But leave it there. My point is that the Spanish Government sent in the police on an order from a judge. This is important to highlight. Of course, you can claim that in Spain there is no separation of powers and there is rule “by” law and not rule “of” law, as you seem to suggest. If you really think so, then I would encourage you to substantiate it. To prove it. Making such a brushing statement without evidence is academically disingenuous.

Furthermore, there are not only many omissions in your letter which mislead the reader. There are also empirical inaccuracies. As Laurent Pech has pointed out, your letter suggests that the RoL Framework has been applied to more than one MS whereas it has only been applied against Poland so far. Also you state that the internet was shut down in the days before and on the Referendum. This is wrong. Webpages were shutdown, not the internet. I encourage you to change this statements so that at least these details are correct.

As mentioned, if you would have considered the possibility of a potential crime of sedition, you would have understood much more the current situation and therefore realised, that beyond the legitimate critique of the excessive use of force on the 1st of October, the case for claiming that there is a violation of the rule of law in Spain is paper thin.