The Spanish Constitution (Spanish,
Asturleonese
Asturleonese ( ast, Asturlleonés; es, Asturleonés; pt, Asturo-leonês; mwl, Asturlhionés) is a Romance language spoken primarily in northwestern Spain, namely in the historical regions and Spain's modern-day autonomous communities of Asturi ...
, and gl, Constitución Española; eu, Espainiako Konstituzioa; ca, Constitució Espanyola; oc, Constitucion espanhòla) is the
democratic law that is
supreme in the
Kingdom of Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. It was enacted after its approval in a
constitutional referendum
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
, and it is the culmination of the
Spanish transition to democracy
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
. The Constitution of 1978 is one of about a dozen of other historical
Spanish constitutions and constitution-like documents; however, it is one of two fully democratic
constitutions
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princip ...
(the other being the
Spanish Constitution of 1931
The Spanish Constitution of 1931 was approved by the Constituent Assembly on 9 December 1931. It was the constitution of the Second Spanish Republic (founded 14 April 1931) and was in force until 1 April 1939. This was the second period of Spanis ...
). It was sanctioned by King
Juan Carlos I
Juan Carlos I (;,
* ca, Joan Carles I,
* gl, Xoán Carlos I, Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 Novem ...
on 27 December, and published in the ' (the
government gazette
A government gazette (also known as an official gazette, official journal, official newspaper, official monitor or official bulletin) is a periodical publication that has been authorised to publish public or legal notices. It is usually establis ...
of Spain) on 29 December, the date on which it became effective. The promulgation of the constitution marked the culmination of the Spanish transition to democracy after the death of general
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...
, on 20 November 1975, who ruled over Spain as a military dictator for nearly 40 years. This led to the country undergoing a series of political, social and historical changes that transformed the
Francoist
Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...
regime into a democratic state.
![Constitucion_espanola_1978](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Constitucion_espanola_1978.JPG)
The Spanish transition to democracy was a complex process that gradually transformed the legal framework of the Francoist regime into a democratic state. The Spanish state did not abolish the Francoist regime, but rather slowly transformed the institutions and approved and/or derogated laws so as to establish a democratic nation and approve the Constitution, all under the guidance of King
Juan Carlos I of Spain
Juan Carlos I (;,
* ca, Joan Carles I,
* gl, Xoán Carlos I, Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 Nov ...
. The Constitution was redacted, debated and approved by the
constituent assembly
A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...
( es, Cortes Constituyentes) that emerged from the
1977 general election. The Constitution then repealed all the
Fundamental Laws of the Realm
The Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom ( es, Leyes Fundamentales del Reino) were a set of constitutional laws organizing the powers of the Francoist regime in Spain, the dictatorship of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. In 1977, during the transition ...
(the constitution of the Francoist regime), as well as other major historical laws and every pre-existing law that contradicted what the Constitution establishes. The constitution takes cues both from older Spanish constitutions as well as from other then-current European constitutions including the provision for a
constructive vote of no confidence
The constructive vote of no confidence (german: konstruktives Misstrauensvotum, es, moción de censura constructiva) is a variation on the motion of no confidence that allows a parliament to withdraw confidence from a head of government only if t ...
taken from the
German Basic Law
The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The West German Constitution was approved in Bonn on 8 May 1949 and came in ...
.
Article 1 of the Constitution defines the Spanish state. Article 1.1 states that "Spain is established as a
social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
and democratic State, subject to the
rule of law
The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...
, which advocates as the highest values of its
legal order
A court order is an official proclamation by a judge (or panel of judges) that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing, a trial, an appeal or other court proceedings. Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying out of ...
the following:
liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
,
justice
Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
,
equality
Equality may refer to:
Society
* Political equality, in which all members of a society are of equal standing
** Consociationalism, in which an ethnically, religiously, or linguistically divided state functions by cooperation of each group's elite ...
and
political pluralism. Article 1.2 refers to
national sovereignty
Westphalian sovereignty, or state sovereignty, is a principle in international law that each state has exclusive sovereignty over its territory. The principle underlies the modern international system of sovereign states and is enshrined in the Un ...
, which is vested in the Spanish people, "from whom the powers of the State emanate". Article 1.3 establishes
parliamentary monarchy
A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...
as the "political form of the Spanish state".
The Constitution is organized in ten parts ( es, Títulos) and an additional introduction ( es, Título Preliminar), as well as a preamble, several additional and interim provisions and a series of repeals, and it ends with a final provision. Part I refers to fundamental rights and duties, which receive special treatment and protection under Spanish law. Part II refers to the regulation of
the Crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
and lays out the King's role in the Spanish state. Part III elaborates on Spain's legislature, the
Cortes Generales
The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house).
The Congress of Deputies meets ...
. Part IV refers to the
Government of Spain
gl, Goberno de España eu, Espainiako Gobernua
, image =
, caption = Logo of the Government of Spain
, headerstyle = background-color: #efefef
, label1 = Role
, data1 = Executive power
, label2 = Established
, da ...
, the executive power, and the Public Administration, which is managed by the executive. Part V refers to the relations between the Government and the Cortes Generales; as a parliamentary monarchy, the Prime Minister ( es, Presidente del Gobierno) is invested by the legislature and the Government is responsible before the legislature. Part VI refers to the organization of the
judicial power
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudication, adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and app ...
, establishing that justice emanates from the people and is administered on behalf of the king by
judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
s and
magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...
s who are independent, irrevocable, liable and subject to the rule of law only. Part VII refers to the principles that shall guide the
economy
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
and the finances of the Spanish state, subjecting all the wealth in the country to the general interest and recognizing public initiative in the economy, while also protecting
private property
Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property and personal property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or ...
in the framework of a
market economy
A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand, where all suppliers and consumers ...
. It also establishes the
Court of Accounts A Court of Audit or Court of Accounts is a Supreme audit institution, i.e. a government institution performing financial and/or legal audit (i.e. Statutory audit or External audit) on the executive branch of power.
See also
*Most of those ins ...
and the principles that shall guide the approval of the state budget. Part VIII refers to the "territorial organization of the State" and establishes a unitary state that is nevertheless heavily decentralized through delegation and transfer of powers. The result is a ''de facto''
federal
Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to:
Politics
General
*Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies
*Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...
model, with some differences from federal states. This is referred to as an autonomous state ( es, Estado Autonómico) or state of the autonomies ( es, Estado de las Autonomías). Part IX refers to the
Constitutional Court
A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
, which oversees the constitutionality of all laws and protects the fundamental rights enshrined in Part I. Finally, Part X refers to constitutional amendments, of which there have been only two since 1978 (in 1995 and 2011).
History
The constitutional history of Spain dates back to the
Constitution of 1812
The Political Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy ( es, link=no, Constitución Política de la Monarquía Española), also known as the Constitution of Cádiz ( es, link=no, Constitución de Cádiz) and as ''La Pepa'', was the first Constituti ...
. After the death of dictator
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...
in 1975, a
general election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
in 1977 convened the
Constituent Cortes
The Constituent Cortes ( es, Las Cortes Constituyentes) is the description of Spain's parliament, the Cortes, when convened as a constituent assembly.
In the 20th century, only one Constituent Cortes was officially opened (Cortes are "opened" in ...
(the Spanish Parliament, in its capacity as a constitutional assembly) for the purpose of drafting and approving the constitution.
A seven-member panel was selected among the elected members of the ' to work on a draft of the Constitution to be submitted to the body. These came to be known, as the media put it, as the ' or "fathers of the Constitution". These seven people were chosen to represent the wide (and often, deeply divided) political spectrum within the Spanish Parliament, while the leading role was given to then ruling party and now defunct
Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD).
![TransicionCartelesCongreso1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/TransicionCartelesCongreso1.jpg)
*
Gabriel Cisneros
Gabriel Cisneros Laborda (14 August 1940 – 27 July 2007) was a Spanish attorney and politician who is mostly known for being one of the Fathers of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 He is also credited with collaborating in the writing the Euro ...
(UCD)
*
José Pedro Pérez-Llorca
José Pedro Pérez-Llorca (30 November 1940 – 6 March 2019) was a Spanish lawyer who served as the minister of foreign affairs from 1980 to 1982. He was also one of the Fathers of the Constitution and played a key role in the country's trans ...
(UCD)
*
Miguel Herrero y Rodríguez de Miñón
Miguel Herrero y Rodríguez de Miñón (born 18 June 1940) is a Spanish jurist and politician. A member of the Union of the Democratic Centre until 1982, then of People's Alliance and its successor, the People's Party, he is one of the "Fath ...
(UCD)
*
Miquel Roca i Junyent (
CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the National public health institutes, national public health agency of the United States. It is a Federal agencies of the United States, United States federal agency, under the United S ...
)
*
Manuel Fraga Iribarne
Manuel Fraga Iribarne (; 23 November 1922 – 15 January 2012) was a Spanish professor and politician in Francoist Spain, who was also the founder of the People's Party. Fraga was Minister of Information and Tourism between 1962 and 1969, Ambas ...
(
AP)
*
Gregorio Peces-Barba
Gregorio Peces-Barba (13 January 1938 – 24 July 2012) was a Spanish politician and jurist. He was one of the seven jurists who wrote the Spanish Constitution of 1978, acting as a representative of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.
Peces- ...
(
PSOE
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources:
*
*
*
* political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...
)
*
Jordi Solé Tura
Jordi Solé Tura (23 May 1930 in Mollet del Vallés – 4 December 2009 in Barcelona) was a Spanish politician, jurist and one of the co-authors and "Fathers" of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 following Spain's move to democracy. (
PSUC
The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya, PSUC) was a communist political party active in Catalonia between 1936 and 1997. It was the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain and the only party n ...
)
The writer (and Senator by Royal appointment)
Camilo José Cela
Camilo José Cela y Trulock, 1st Marquess of Iria Flavia (; 11 May 1916 – 17 January 2002) was a Spanish novelist, poet, story writer and essayist associated with the Generation of '36 movement.
He was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Literat ...
later polished the draft Constitution's wording. However, since much of the consensus depended on keeping the wording ambiguous, few of Cela's proposed re-wordings were approved. One of those accepted was the substitution of the archaic ' ("
weld-colored") for the plain ' (yellow) in the description of the
flag of Spain
The national flag of Spain ( es, Bandera de España), as it is defined in the Constitution of 1978, consists of three horizontal stripes: red, yellow and red, the yellow stripe being twice the size of each red stripe. Traditionally, the middle ...
.
The constitution was approved by the
Cortes Generales
The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house).
The Congress of Deputies meets ...
on 31 October 1978, and by the Spanish people in a
referendum
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
on 6 December 1978. 91.81% of voters supported the new constitution. Finally, it was sanctioned by King Juan Carlos on 27 December in a ceremony in the presence of parliamentarians. It came into effect on 29 December, the day it was published in the Official Gazette.
Constitution Day
Constitution Day is a holiday to honour the constitution of a country. Constitution Day is often celebrated on the anniversary of the signing, promulgation or adoption of the constitution, or in some cases, to commemorate the change to constitut ...
( es, Día de la Constitución) on 6 December has since been a
national holiday in Spain.
Structure
The Constitution recognizes the existence of
nationalities and regions (Preliminary Title).
Preamble
Traditionally, writing the preamble to the constitution was considered an honour, and a task requiring great literary ability. The person chosen for this purpose was . The full text of the preamble may be translated as follows:
Preliminary Title
:Section 1. Spain is hereby established as a
social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
and
democratic State, subject to the
rule of law
The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...
, which advocates freedom, justice, equality and political pluralism as highest values of its legal system. National sovereignty belongs to the Spanish people, from whom all state powers emanate. The political form of the Spanish State is the Parliamentary Monarchy.
:Section 2. The Constitution is based on the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards; it recognizes and guarantees the right to self-government of the nationalities and regions of which it is composed and the solidarity among them all.
As a result, Spain is now composed entirely of 17 Autonomous Communities and two autonomous cities with varying degrees of autonomy, to the extent that, even though the Constitution does not formally state that Spain is a federation (nor a unitary state), actual power shows, depending on the issue considered, widely varying grades of decentralization, ranging from the quasi-confederal status of tax management in Navarre and the Basque Country to the total centralization in airport management.
Part I: fundamental rights and duties
Part I of the Spanish Constitution encompasses Sections 10 to 55, establishing fundamental rights and duties. The scope of the rights recognised by the text is the largest in Spanish constitutional history. Scholars deem the enumeration open insofar as new rights can be included under the principle of human dignity as a foundation of the political order and social peace (Section 10). This can be achieved by means of constitutional reform, jurisprudential developments or the ratification of new international treaties.
The effect of fundamental rights is twofold. They are
subjective rights to be exercised both individually and collectively. In addition to this, they are a binding principle for all public authorities, which allows for peaceful coexistence and legitimates the political and social order.
Chapter One: Spaniards and Aliens
Chapter One deals with the entitlement of constitutional rights. Section 11 provides for the regulation by statute of Spanish nationality whilst providing for its inalienability for Spaniards. Section 12 establishes the
age of majority
The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when minors cease to be considered such and assume legal control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thus terminating the contr ...
in Spain at 18. Section 13 limits the entitlement of public freedoms to aliens to the provisions of statutes and international treaties.
Legal person
In law, a legal person is any person or 'thing' (less ambiguously, any legal entity) that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, own property, and so on. The reason for ...
s are entitled to a reduced array of rights, among which the right of association, the right to honour, the right to due process of law, freedom of speech and the inviolability of the home are included.
Chapter Two: Rights and Freedoms
Chapter Two begins with Section 14, an
equal rights clause.
;Section One, fundamental rights and freedoms
Section One (Sections 15 to 29) includes an enumeration of fundamental rights and public freedoms. This section is
entrenched, meaning it is extremely difficult to modify or repeal, in order to prevent the establishment of a ''
legal dictatorship
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
'' via constitutional amendment. Furthermore, an individual can request the protection of a justice court if any of these rights are infringed.
Individual rights include the
right to life
The right to life is the belief that a being has the right to live and, in particular, should not be killed by another entity. The concept of a right to life arises in debates on issues including capital punishment, with some people seeing it as ...
(Section 15),
freedom of conscience
Freedom of thought (also called freedom of conscience) is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints.
Overview
Every person attempts to have a cognitive proficiency by ...
(Section 16),
right to freedom and security (Section 17), honour, privacy and inviolability of the home (Section 18),
freedom of movement
Freedom of movement, mobility rights, or the right to travel is a human rights concept encompassing the right of individuals to travel from place to place within the territory of a country,Jérémiee Gilbert, ''Nomadic Peoples and Human Rights' ...
and residence (Section 19), and
freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
(Section 20). The list of collective rights include the
right of assembly
Freedom of peaceful assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of people to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their collective or shared ide ...
(Section 21),
right of association
Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an club (organization), association to ac ...
(Section 22),
right of suffrage (Section 23),
right to education
The right to education has been recognized as a human right in a number of international conventions, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which recognizes a right to free, compulsory primary education for ...
(Section 27) and the
right to strike
Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became common during the I ...
(Section 28). The
due process of law
Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual pers ...
is covered by Sections 24 to 26.
;Section two, other rights and obligations
Section Two of Chapter Two (Sections 30 to 38) includes a list of civic rights and duties. Section 30 includes
military duties with guarantees and alternatives for
conscientious objector
A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...
s (this section has been inactive since 2002). Section 31 establishes a progressive and non-confiscatory
tax system
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
. The principles of
family law
Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations.
Overview
Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include:
* Marriage, ...
are laid out in Section 32. Chapter Two also deals with the
right to property
The right to property, or the right to own property (cf. ownership) is often classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their possessions. A general recognition of a right to private property is found more rarely and is typically h ...
(Section 33), to create
foundations
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
(Section 34),
to work (Section 35), to create
professional association
A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) usually seeks to advocacy, further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in that professio ...
s (Section 36) and to
collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The i ...
(Section 37). This Section also guarantees
economic freedom
Economic freedom, or economic liberty, is the ability of people of a society to take economic actions. This is a term used in economic and policy debates as well as in the philosophy of economics. One approach to economic freedom comes from the l ...
and calls for a
market economy
A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand, where all suppliers and consumers ...
which can be subject to government
planning
Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. The evolution of forethought, the capacity to think ahead, is consi ...
(Section 38).
Chapter Three: Governing Principles of Economic and Social Policy
Chapter Three includes Sections 39 to 52. They lay out the foundations of the Spanish
welfare state
A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...
in accordance with the constitutional mandate for a social state (Section 1) and for effective freedom and equality and societal integration for all citizens and collectives (Section 9, Part 2). It includes provisions for a public
pension system
A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...
, a social security system,
public healthcare
Publicly funded healthcare is a form of health care financing designed to meet the cost of all or most healthcare needs from a publicly managed fund. Usually this is under some form of democratic accountability, the right of access to which are ...
and
cultural rights
The cultural rights movement has provoked attention to protect the rights of groups of people, or their culture, in similar fashion to the manner in which the human rights movement has brought attention to the needs of individuals throughout t ...
.
Chapter Four: Guarantees for Fundamental Rights and Freedoms
Chapter Four includes a series of guarantees for fundamental rights. Section 53 limits the regulation of all rights in Chapter Two and Chapter Three to
statutory law
Statutory law or statute law is written law passed by a body of legislature. This is opposed to oral or customary law; or regulatory law promulgated by the executive or common law of the judiciary. Statutes may originate with national, state legi ...
, which excludes administrative regulation (''reglamentos''). These statutes must respect the essential content of said rights. The fundamental rights and public freedoms included in Section One of Chapter Two can be invoked directly, and they ought to be regulated by means of
Organic Law
An organic law is a law, or system of laws, that form the foundation of a government, corporation or any other organization's body of rules. A constitution is a particular form of organic law for a sovereign state.
By country France
Under Article ...
(which ensures greater political consensus). The creation of this statute cannot be delegated to the executive power.
Section 54 calls for the creation of an
Ombudsman
An ombudsman (, also ,), ombud, ombuds, ombudswoman, ombudsperson or public advocate is an official who is usually appointed by the government or by parliament (usually with a significant degree of independence) to investigate complaints and at ...
(''Defensor del Pueblo''), accountable to the legislative power, the
Cortes Generales
The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house).
The Congress of Deputies meets ...
. It acts as a supervisor of administrative activity. In addition to this, it has
standing
Standing, also referred to as orthostasis, is a position in which the body is held in an ''erect'' ("orthostatic") position and supported only by the feet. Although seemingly static, the body rocks slightly back and forth from the ankle in the s ...
before the
Constitutional Court
A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
to lodge
unconstitutionality appeals and
individual appeals for protection ''(recurso de amparo)''.
Sections 14 to 29 and Section 30, Part 2, enjoy the right to a preferential and summary procedure in the ordinary courts. Once this procedure is exhausted, citizens may lodge an
individual appeal for protection ''(recurso de amparo)'', a last instance unique to Spanish constitutional law and created in 1978 that, once exhausted, allows for an appeal before the
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
. This scope of additional protection reinforces the guarantees of the due process of law, including the process of
habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
.
In addition to this, the Prime Minister, the Ombudsman, 50 members of the Congress of Deputies, 50 Senators, and regional governments and legislative assemblies may lodge
unconstitutionality appeals before the
Constitutional Court
A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
.
[Art. 161.1.a CE][Art. 162.1 CE]
Part II: Crown
![Distintivo Felipe VI de España (color THV)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Distintivo_Felipe_VI_de_Espa%C3%B1a_%28color_THV%29.svg)
The Constitution dedicates its Part II to the regulation of the monarchy, which is referred to as ''The Crown'' ( es, La Corona). Article 56 of the Constitution establishes that the monarch is the
head of state
A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...
and symbolizes the unity of the Spanish state. It refers to the monarch's role as a "moderator" whose main role is to oversee and ensure the regular functioning of the institutions. The monarch is also the highest-ranked representative of the Spanish state in
international relations
International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...
and only exercises the functions that are explicitly attributed to him by the Constitution and the laws. The King's official title is "King of Spain" ( es, Rey de España), but he is allowed to use any
other titles that are associated to the Spanish Crown.
The King of Spain enjoys immunity and is not subject to legal accountability. In a broad sense, this means that the King cannot be legally prosecuted. Some jurists say that this only refers to criminal procedures, while others claim this immunity is also present in civil procedures; in practice, the King has never been prosecuted and it is unlikely that he would be prosecuted even if it was proven that the monarch had committed a crime. The legal justification for royal immunity is that the King is mandated by the Constitution to fulfill several roles as the head of state; thus, the King is obligated to perform his actions and fulfill his duties, so the King cannot be judged for actions that he is constitutionally obligated to perform.
Refrendo
The fact that the King is not personally responsible for his actions does not mean that his actions are free of responsibility. The responsibility for the King's actions falls into the persons who hold actual political power and who actually take political decisions, which the King only formally and symbolically ratifies. This is done through a procedure or institution called the ''refrendo'' ("countersigning" in the official English translation of the constitution).
All the King's actions have to undergo the refrendo procedure. Through the refrendo, the responsibility of the King is transported to other persons, who will be responsible for the King's actions, if such responsibility is demanded from them. Article 64 explains the refrendo, which transports the King's responsibility unto the
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
for most cases, though it also establishes the refrendo for Ministers in some cases. In general, when there is not a formed government, the responsibility is assumed by the
President of the Congress of Deputies
The president of the Congress of Deputies ( es, Presidente del Congreso de los Diputados) is the speaker of the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of the Cortes Generales (the Spanish parliament). The president is elected among the members o ...
. Without the refrendo, the King's actions are
null and void
In law, void means of no legal effect. An action, document, or transaction which is void is of no legal effect whatsoever: an absolute nullity—the law treats it as if it had never existed or happened. The term void ''ab initio'', which means " ...
.
There are only two royal acts that do not require the refrendo. The first encompasses all acts related to the management of the Royal House of Spain; the King can freely hire and fire any employees of the Royal House and he receives an annual amount from the state budget to operate the Royal House, which he freely distributes across the institution. The second one refers to the King's will, which enables him to distribute his material legacy and name tutors for his children, if they are not legal adults.
King's functions in the Spanish state
![Proclamacionfelipevi2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Proclamacionfelipevi2.jpg)
Article 62 of the Spanish Constitution establishes an exhaustive list of the King's functions, all of which are symbolic and do not reflect the exercise of any political power. The King sanctions and promulgates the laws, which are approved by the
Cortes Generales
The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house).
The Congress of Deputies meets ...
, which the King also symbolically and formally calls and dissolves. The King also calls for periodic elections and for referendums in the cases that are included by the laws or the Constitution.
The King also proposes a candidate for Prime Minister, which is probably the King's most 'political' function, as he traditionally holds meetings with the leaders of all the major political parties in order to facilitate the formation of a government. If a candidate is successfully invested by the Parliament, he formally names him Prime Minister of Spain. When a Prime Minister has been named, he also formally names all the members of his government, all of which are proposed by the Prime Minister himself. The King has both a right and a duty to be informed of all the state affairs; he is also allowed to preside over the government meetings when the Prime Minister invites him to do so, although he has the ability to reject this invitation.
Regarding the Government, the King also formally issues the governmental decrees, as well as bestowing all the civil and military ranks and employments, and he also grants honors and distinctions according to the laws. The King is also the supreme head of the Armed Forces of Spain, although the effective lead is held by the Government of Spain. Finally, the King holds the High Patronage of all the Royal Academies and other organizations that have a royal patronage.
Succession to the Crown
The succession to the Crown is regulated in article 57 which establishes a male preference primogeniture to the successors of
King Juan Carlos I
Juan Carlos I (;,
* ca, Joan Carles I,
* gl, Xoán Carlos I, Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 Novem ...
and his dynasty, the
Bourbon dynasty
The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a European dynasty of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Spanis ...
. The heir to the throne receives the title of Prince or Princess of Asturias as well as the other historic titles of the heir and the other children received the title of Infates or Infantas.
If some person with rights of succession marries against the will of the King or Queen regnant or the Cortes Generales, they shall be excluded from succession to the Crown, as shall their descendants. This article also establishes that if the lines are extinguished, the Cortes Generales shall decided who will be the new King or Queen attending to the general interests of the country.
Finally, article 57.5 establishes that abdications or any legal doubt about the succession must be clarified by an Organic Act.
This legal forecast was exercised for the first time of the current democratic period in 2014 when King Juan Carlos abdicated in favor of his son. The Organic Act 3/2014 made effective the abdication of the King. A Royal decree of the same year also modified the Royal Decree of 1987 which establishes the titles of the Royal family and the Regents and arranged that the outgoing King and Queen shall conserve their titles. And the Organic Act 4/2014 modified the Organic Act of the Judiciary to allow the former Kings to conserve their judicial prerogatives (immunity).
Regency
The Regency is regulated in article 59. The Regency is a period in which a person exercises the duties of the King or Queen regnant on behalf of the real monarch who is a minor. This article establishes that the King or Queen's mother or father shall immediately assume the office of regent and, in the absence of these, the oldest relative of legal age who is nearest in succession to the Crown.
Article 59 § 2 establishes that the monarch may be declared incapacitated by Parliament if the monarch becomes unfit for the exercise of authority, in which case the Prince or Princess of Asturias shall assume the regency if they are of age; if not, the previous procedure must be followed.
If there is no person entitled to exercise the regency, the Cortes Generales shall appoint one regent or a council of three or five persons known as the Council of Regency. The regent must be a Spaniard and legally of age.
The Constitution also establishes in article 60 that the guardian of the King or Queen during their minority cannot be the same as the person who acts as regent, unless the regent is the father, the mother, or a direct ancestor of the King. Parents can be guardian while widowed. If the parent marries again, the parent loses the guardianship, and the Cortes Generales shall appoint a guardian who must comply with the same requirements as to be regent.
Article 60 § 2 also establishes that the exercise of the guardianship is also incompatible with the holding of any office or political representation so that no person can be the guardian of the monarch while holding a political office.
Part III: Cortes Generales
Part III (Sections 66 to 96) deals with the
Cortes Generales
The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house).
The Congress of Deputies meets ...
, the Spanish legislature. It consists of two chambers: the
Congress of Deputies
The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Ma ...
and the
Senate of Spain
The Senate ( es, Senado) is the upper house of the Cortes Generales, which along with the Congress of Deputies – the lower chamber – comprises the Parliament of the Kingdom of Spain. The Senate meets in the Palace of the Senate in Madrid.
Th ...
, with the former being privileged above the latter, in contrast with other upper chambers, such as the Italian
Senate of the Republic.
Each chamber is provided with internal
regulatory
Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...
powers for governance, a Speaker (''Presidente'') and a Governing Board (''Mesa'').
[Art. 72.2 CE] The Permanent Deputation exerts a limited series of powers during recesses and after the dissolution of the chambers. Joint sessions of the Cortes are presided by the Speaker of the Congress of Deputies under a common procedure code passed by a majority of each chamber.
The Cortes exert legislative, budgetary and control powers over the executive. They have the power to appoint members to the
Constitutional Court
A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
, the
General Council of the Judiciary
The General Council of the Judiciary ( es, Consejo General del Poder Judicial, CGPJ) is the national council of the judiciary of Spain. It is the constitutional body that governs all the Judiciary of Spain, such as courts, and judges, as it is ...
, the
Court of Auditors
The European Court of Auditors (ECA; French: ''Cour des comptes européenne'') is one of the seven institutions of the European Union (EU). It was established in 1975 in Luxembourg in order to improve EU financial management. It has 27 members ( ...
and the
Ombudsman
An ombudsman (, also ,), ombud, ombuds, ombudswoman, ombudsperson or public advocate is an official who is usually appointed by the government or by parliament (usually with a significant degree of independence) to investigate complaints and at ...
. They have control over the line of succession of the Spanish Crown, with the power to appoint Regents, Tutors and to elect a new head of state according to the interest of Spain if all sucessory lines are exhausted.
Each chambers works in a Plenary or by Commissions, work groups with a composition proportional to each party's representation. Commissions may be assigned the study of bills and matters by the Governing Board, and the Plenary may delegate unto them the passing of certain bills, excluding those related to constitutional reform, international matters, organic laws and the budget. Commissions can be legislative and non-legislative, and permanent or temporary.
Congress of Deputies
Section 68 provides for a lower chamber with a minimum of three hundred and a maximum of four hundred Deputies,
[Art. 68.1 CE] elected by universal, free, equal, direct and secret suffrage.
The electoral districts are the
provinces
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...
and the cities of
Ceuta
Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa.
Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...
and
Melilla
Melilla ( , ; ; rif, Mřič ; ar, مليلية ) is an autonomous city of Spain located in north Africa. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was par ...
, with a minimum of two seats for each province and one seat for each city, the rest being apportioned by population.
[Art. 68.2 CE] All deputies are elected in each district by
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
.
Senate
Section 69 establishes the Senate as an upper and territorial chamber. It is elected under a mixed system where 208 Senators are elected directly by universal, free, equal, direct and secret suffrage and the rest are indirectly appointed by the legislative assemblies of the
autonomous communities.
Senators are elected by
limited voting
Limited voting (also known as partial block voting) is a voting system in which electors have fewer votes than there are positions available. The positions are awarded to the candidates who receive the most votes absolutely. In the special case ...
, with citizens being able to elect all but one members of a district. This affords the second most voted party in each district a degree of representation.
The attributions of the Spanish Senate are subordinate to those of the Spanish Congress, which makes it comparable to the
Senate of Canada
The Senate of Canada (french: region=CA, Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada.
The Senate is modelled after the B ...
or the
House of Councillors
The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, ...
of the
National Diet of Japan
The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a parall ...
insofar as it may exert limited control and review powers over the lower chamber.
Part IV: government
Section 97 vests the
executive power
The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a state.
In political systems ba ...
in the
Government of Spain
gl, Goberno de España eu, Espainiako Gobernua
, image =
, caption = Logo of the Government of Spain
, headerstyle = background-color: #efefef
, label1 = Role
, data1 = Executive power
, label2 = Established
, da ...
, which runs the country's domestic and
foreign policy
A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...
, the civil and military administration and the
national defense
National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military attac ...
.
Section 98 states that the Government shall be composed of the President (referred to in English as the
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
), the Vice Presidents if any (referred to in English as the
Deputy Prime Ministers
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president ...
), and any other members listed in statute. The Prime Minister runs the Government's policy and coordinates the faculties of the others members of the Government.
Section 99 describes the procedure of appointment of the Prime Minister. After an election, or any other event that triggers an appointment, the King shall meet with all the leaders of the
political groups
A political group is a group consisting of political parties or legislators of aligned ideologies. A technical group is similar to a political group, but with members of differing ideologies.
International terms
Equivalent terms are used differ ...
in the Cortes Generales, then choose one of them to face an investiture vote. The
President of the Congress of Deputies
The president of the Congress of Deputies ( es, Presidente del Congreso de los Diputados) is the speaker of the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of the Cortes Generales (the Spanish parliament). The president is elected among the members o ...
holds
veto
A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president or monarch vetoes a bill to stop it from becoming law. In many countries, veto powers are established in the country's constitution. Veto ...
power over the King's choice. The investiture vote is successful, and the nominee becomes Prime Minister, if he gets the
absolute majority
A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...
vote of the Congress of Deputies in the first
roll call
''Roll Call'' is a newspaper and website published in Washington, D.C., United States, when the United States Congress is in session, reporting news of legislative and political maneuverings on Capitol Hill, as well as political coverage of c ...
, or a simple majority (more yeas than noes) in a second roll call that takes place two days after the first. The process can be repeated with the same or other political leader chosen by the King within two months after the first roll call; after that time, a
general election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
to both chambers is automatically called.
Section 100 states that the
ministers are appointed and dismissed by the King by the Prime Minister's proposal.
Section 101 states that the Government is dismissed after a general election, the
loss of supply
Loss of supply occurs where a government in a parliamentary democracy using the Westminster System or a system derived from it is denied a supply of treasury or exchequer funds, by whichever house or houses of parliament or head of state is con ...
or
confidence
Confidence is a state of being clear-headed either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. Confidence comes from a Latin word 'fidere' which means "to trust"; therefore, having ...
of the Congress of Deputies, or the resignation or death of the Prime Minister. The dismissed Government holds
caretaker
Caretaker may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''The Caretaker'' (film), a 1963 adaptation of the play ''The Caretaker''
* '' The Caretakers'', a 1963 American film set in a mental hospital
* Caretaker, a character in the 1974 film '' ...
powers until a new Government is inaugurated.
Section 102 stablishes the conditions for prosecution of criminal accountability for the Prime Minister or any other member of the Government, explicitly stating they cannot
pardon
A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the ju ...
themselves.
Sections 103 to 107 stablish the role of the
General State Administration
The General State Administration ( es, Administración General del Estado) is one of the Public Administrations of Spain. It is the only administration with powers throughout the national territory and it is controlled by the central government.
...
, the
law enforcement
Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...
organizations, the
Council of State
A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...
, and the obligation of the Government to grant
due process
Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual pers ...
, to abide by
judiciary
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
decisions and to fulfill any
public liability Public liability is part of the law of tort which focuses on civil wrongs. An applicant (the injured party) usually sues the respondent (the owner or occupier) under common law based on negligence and/or damages. Claims are usually successful when ...
to the individuals.
Part V: relations between the Cortes Generales and the government
Article 115 deals with the mechanisms of how and when Congress, the Senate, or the Cortes Generales can be dissolved. This measure requires approval from the King of Spain, who must establish a date for the elections. The proposal for dissolution cannot be submitted during a censure.
Article 116
:''Section 1. A
state of alarm
In Spain the state of alarm (''estado de alarma'') is the lowest of the three degrees of state of emergency that allows the government to perform actions or impose policies that it would normally not be permitted to undertake. It is regulated in t ...
shall be declared by the Government, by means of a decree decided upon by the Council of Ministers, for a maximum period of fifteen days. The Congress of Deputies shall be informed and must meet immediately for this purpose. Without their authorisation, the said period may not be extended. The decree shall specify the territorial area to which the effects of the proclamation shall apply.''
:''Section 2. A state of emergency shall be declared by the Government by means of a decree decided upon by the Council of Ministers, after prior authorisation by the Congress of Deputies. The authorisation for and declaration of a state of emergency must specifically state the effects thereof, the territorial area to which it is to apply and its duration, which may not exceed thirty days, subject to extension for a further thirty-day period, with the same requirements.''
:''Section 3. A state of siege (martial law) shall be declared by absolute majority of the Congress of Deputies, exclusively at the proposal of the Government. Congress shall determine its territorial extension, duration and terms.''
For the duration where any of those acts of Article 116 are declared, Congress cannot be dissolved. In the event that Congress had been dissolved or its term expires, the powers of Congress are assumed by the Standing Committee. Since the constitution of Spain was adopted, the state of alarm was only declared twice: once in 2010 for the
Spanish air traffic controllers strike
The Spanish air traffic controllers crisis began on December 3, 2010 when the Socialist Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero declared rate 0 forcing a National Air Navigation Lock-Out and portraying air traffic controllers in Spanish air ...
, and in March 2020 for the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. The first state of emergency was declared in October 2020 as a result of continued difficulties for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Part VI: judiciary
Part VII: economy and taxation
Part VIII: territorial model
Article 143
:''Section 1. In the exercise of the right to self-government recognized in Article 2 of the Constitution, bordering provinces with common historic, cultural and economic characteristics, island territories and provinces with historic regional status may accede to self-government and form Autonomous Communities in conformity with the provisions contained in this Title and in the respective Statutes.''
![Monumento a la Constitución de 1978 (Madrid) 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Monumento_a_la_Constituci%C3%B3n_de_1978_%28Madrid%29_01.jpg)
The Spanish Constitution is one of the few Bill of Rights that has legal provisions for
social rights
Economic, social and cultural rights, (ESCR) are socio-economic human rights, such as the right to education, right to housing, right to an adequate standard of living, right to health, victims' rights and the right to science and culture. Econo ...
, including the definition of Spain itself as a "Social and Democratic State, subject to the rule of law" ( es, Estado social y democrático de derecho) in its preliminary title. However, those rights are not at the same level of protection as the individual rights contained in articles 14 to 28, since those social rights are considered in fact principles and directives of economic policy, but never full rights of the citizens to be claimed before a court or tribunal.
Other constitutional provisions recognize the right to adequate housing,
employment
Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...
,
social welfare provision
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...
,
health protection
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
and
pensions
A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...
.
Thanks to the political influence of
Santiago Carrillo
Santiago José Carrillo Solares (18 January 1915 – 18 September 2012) was a Spanish politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain (main), Communist Party of Spain (PCE) from 1960 to 1982. His role in the Paracu ...
of the
Communist Party of Spain
The Communist Party of Spain ( es, Partido Comunista de España; PCE) is a Marxist-Leninist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is part of Unidas Podemos. It currently has two of its politicians serving as ...
, and with the consensus of the other "fathers of the constitution", the right to State intervention in private companies in the public interest and the facilitation of access by workers to ownership of the means of production were also enshrined in the Constitution.
Article 155
''Section 1. If a self-governing community does not fulfil the obligations imposed upon it by the constitution or other laws, or acts in a way that is seriously prejudicial to the general interest of Spain, the government may take all measures necessary to compel the community to meet said obligations, or to protect the above-mentioned general interest.''
:''Section 2. With a view to implementing the measures provided for in the foregoing paragraph, the Government may issue instructions to all the authorities of the Self-governing Communities.''
This wording is almost identical to Article 37 of the
German Basic Law
The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The West German Constitution was approved in Bonn on 8 May 1949 and came in ...
.
On Friday, October 27, 2017, the Senate of Spain (Senado) voted 214 to 47 to invoke Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution over Catalonia after the Catalan Parliament declared independence. Article 155 gave Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy the power to remove secessionist politicians, including
Carles Puigdemont
Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó (; born 29 December 1962) is a Catalan politician and journalist from Spain. Since 2019 he has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). A former mayor of Girona, Puigdemont served as President of Catalo ...
, the Catalan leader, and directly rule from Madrid.
Part IX: Constitutional Court
Part X: constitutional amendment
There are two methods of amending the Spanish Constitution, detailed below. The Government, the Congress of Deputies or the Senate can propose constitutional amendments. The Parliaments of the Autonomous Communities can also propose a constitutional amendment to the Congress or the Government, but cannot propose an amendment directly.
There have been 2 amendments to the Spanish constitution, one in 1992 and one in 2011, both were passed with the necessary majority and without a referendum being requested.
Ordinary provisions
A constitutional amendment must be approved by a three-fifths majority by both the Congress of Deputies and the Senate. If there is disagreement between the Chambers, a mixed committee will present an agreed text to both chambers for a vote. Even if this procedure fails, and as long as the amendment passed with a simple majority in the Senate, Congress may pass the amendment with two-thirds majority. One-tenth of either deputies or senators may also request, with a 15-day deadline since passage, that the amendment be put to a referendum.
Entrenched provisions
Three parts of the Constitution are
entrenched: the Preliminary Title, Section I of Chapter II of Title I (on Fundamental Rights and Public Liberties), and Title II (on the Crown). Under Title X, these cannot be altered except by the same process that would be required for adoption of a new constitution:
* two-thirds of each House approve the amendment,
* elections are called immediately thereafter,
* two-thirds of each new House approves the amendment, and
* the amendment is approved by the people in a referendum.
Reform
The Constitution has been amended twice. The first time, Article 13.2, Title I was altered to extend to citizens of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
the right to active and passive suffrage (both voting rights and eligibility as candidates) in local elections under the provisions of the
Maastricht Treaty
The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve member states of the European Communities, it announced "a new stage in the ...
. The second time, in August/September 2011, a
balanced budget amendment
A balanced budget amendment is a constitutional rule requiring that a state cannot spend more than its income. It requires a balance between the projected receipts and expenditures of the government.
Balanced-budget provisions have been added t ...
and debt brake was added to Article 135.
The current version restricts the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
to military courts during wartime, but the death penalty has since been removed from the Code of Military Justice and thus lost all relevance.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
has still requested an amendment to be made to the Constitution to abolish it firmly and explicitly in all cases.
Amnesty International Spain
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
,
Oxfam Intermón
Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International.
History
Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford C ...
and
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
launched a campaign in 2015
[. Official campaign site.] to amend the article 53 so that it extends the same protection to
economic
An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
,
social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
and
cultural rights
The cultural rights movement has provoked attention to protect the rights of groups of people, or their culture, in similar fashion to the manner in which the human rights movement has brought attention to the needs of individuals throughout t ...
as to other rights like
life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
or
freedom
Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...
.
After that, the campaign seeks another 24 amendments protecting
human right
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
s, the
environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
and
social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
.
Reform of the autonomy statutes
The "
Statutes of Autonomy
A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by le ...
" of the different regions are the second most important Spanish legal normatives when it comes to the political structure of the country. Because of that, the reform attempts of some of them have been either rejected or produced considerable controversy.
The plan conducted by the
Basque president
The President of the Basque Government ( eu, Eusko Jaurlaritzako lehendakaria, es, presidente del Gobierno Vasco), usually known in the Basque language as the Lehendakari ( eu, lehendakari, es, lendakari), is the head of government of the Basq ...
Juan José Ibarretxe
Juan José Ibarretxe Markuartu (born 15 March 1957) is a former president of the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain. Also a leading member of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) during the period, he held office from 2 January 1999 to 7 May 20 ...
(known as
Ibarretxe Plan
The Political Statute of the Community of the Basque Country, better known as the Ibarretxe Plan was a proposal by former ''lehendakari'' Juan Jose Ibarretxe to totally reform the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country by proposing a free ass ...
) to reform the status of the
Basque Country in the Spanish state was rejected by the Spanish Cortes, on the grounds (among others) that it amounted to an implicit reform of the Constitution.
The People's Party attempted to reject the admission into the Cortes of the 2005 reform of the
Autonomy Statute of Catalonia on the grounds that it should be dealt with as a constitutional reform rather than a mere statute reform because it allegedly contradicts the spirit of the Constitution in many points, especially the Statute's alleged breaches of the "solidarity between regions" principle enshrined by the Constitution. After failing to assemble the required majority to dismiss the text, the People's Party filed a claim of unconstitutionality against several dozen articles of the text before the Spanish Constitutional Court for them to be struck down.
The amended Autonomy Statute of Catalonia has also been legally contested by the surrounding
Autonomous Communities
eu, autonomia erkidegoa
ca, comunitat autònoma
gl, comunidade autónoma
oc, comunautat autonòma
an, comunidat autonoma
ast, comunidá autónoma
, alt_name =
, map =
, category = Autonomous administra ...
of Aragon, Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community on similar grounds as those of the PP, and others such as disputed
cultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...
. As of January 2008, the
Constitutional Court of Spain
The Constitutional Court ( es, Tribunal Constitucional) is the supreme interpreter of the Spanish Constitution, with the power to determine the constitutionality of acts and statutes made by any public body, central, regional, or local in Spa ...
has those alleged breaches and its actual compliance with the Constitution under
judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...
.
Prominent Spanish politicians, mostly from the People's Party but also from the Socialist Party (PSOE) and other non-nationalist parties, have advocated for the statutory reform process to be more closely compliant with the Constitution, on the grounds that the current wave of reforms threatens the functional destruction of the constitutional system itself. The most cited arguments are the self-appointed unprecedented expansions of the powers of autonomous communities present in recently reformed statutes:
* The amended version of the Catalan Statute prompts the State to allot investments in Catalonia according to Catalonia's own percentage contribution to the total Spanish
GDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is often ...
. The Autonomy Statute of Andalusia, a region that contributes less to Spain's GDP than the region of Catalonia contributes, requires it in turn to allocate state investments in proportion to its population (it is the largest Spanish Autonomous Community in terms of population). These requirements are legally binding, as they are enacted as part of Autonomy Statutes, which rank only below the Constitution itself. It is self-evident that, should all autonomous communities be allowed to establish their particular financing models upon the State, the total may add up to more than 100% and that would be unviable. Despite these changes having been proposed and approved by fellow members of the PSOE, former
Finance Minister
A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation.
A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...
Pedro Solbes
Pedro Solbes Mira (born 31 August 1942 in Pinoso, Alicante) is a Spanish economist. He was the president of FRIDE, Madrid-based think tank.
Career
While independent in the sense of not affiliated to any party, his various ministerial roles in ...
disagreed with this new trend of assigning state investment quotas to territories based on any given autonomous community custom requirement
"Solbes rechaza vincular la nueva financiación a las balanzas fiscales", ''El País''. 03/12/2007
/ref> and has subsequently compared the task of planning the Spanish national budget to a sudoku
Sudoku (; ja, 数独, sūdoku, digit-single; originally called Number Place) is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. In classic Sudoku, the objective is to fill a 9 × 9 grid with digits so that each column, each row ...
.
* The Valencian statute, whose reform was one of the first to be enacted, includes the so-called Camps clause (named after the Valencian President Francisco Camps
Francisco Enrique Camps Ortiz (born 28 August 1962) is a Spanish politician belonging to the Partido Popular (PP). He served as President of the Valencian Government, the Valencian regional administration, in the period 2003–2011, and is sti ...
), which makes any powers assumed by other communities in its statutes automatically available to the Valencian Community.
* Autonomous communities such as Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia or Extremadura, have included statutory clauses claiming exclusive powers over any river flowing through their territories. Nearby communities have filed complaints before the Spanish Constitutional Court on the grounds that no Community can exercise exclusive power over rivers that cross more than one Community, not even over the part flowing through its territory because its decisions affect other Communities, both downstream or upstream.
Proposed amendments
Reform of the Senate
Other proposed amendments
In May 2021, the Spanish government headed by Pedro Sánchez Castejón
Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter.
The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning " ...
proposed to amend article 49, substituting ("handicapped
Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, se ...
") with ("persons with disability") in line with the 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights treaty of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. Parties to the convention are required to promote, ...
and inclusive and people-first language
People-first language (PFL), also called person-first language, is a type of linguistic prescription which puts a person before a diagnosis, describing what condition a person "has" rather than asserting what a person "is". It is intended to av ...
.
The change has not initially gathered the necessary support from the opposition.
See also
* List of constitutions of Spain
:''Go directly to the Table''
Spain has proclaimed a number of Constitutions. The current Constitution of Spain of 1978 is the culmination of the Spanish transition to democracy.
The idea of a national constitution for Spain arose from the Dec ...
* Constitutional economics
Constitutional economics is a research program in economics and constitutionalism that has been described as explaining the choice "of alternative sets of legal-institutional-constitutional rules that constrain the choices and activities of economi ...
* Constitutionalism
Constitutionalism is "a compound of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law".
Political organizations are constitutional ...
* Rule according to higher law
Notes
References
External links
Government of Spain website: The Spanish Constitution
RTVE video of the event of Juan Carlos I's sanction of the constitution in the presence of parliamentarians, 27 December 1978.
The constitution on the Boletin Oficial del Estado's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spanish Constitution Of 1978
Law of Spain
*1978
1978 in law
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
Constitution of 1978
1978 documents
Political history of Spain