A Royal Legislative Decree is a legal rule having the force of a

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

in the Spanish

legal system A legal system is a set of legal norms and institutions and processes by which those norms are applied, often within a particular jurisdiction or community. It may also be referred to as a legal order. The comparative study of legal systems is th ...

. The name of "Royal" is given because it has state rank and it is the

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

who is responsible for sanctioning and ordering the publication and compliance of the rule and the name of "Legislative" is given because it is a delegation from parliament. However, when the rule is created by an autonomous government, it receives the name of "Legislative Decree" because the King only sanctions the Decrees of the

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or deleg ...

(the autonomous community Legislative Decree is sanctioned by the President of the Autonomous Community in the name of the KingPromulgación y publicación de leyes de comunidades autónomas
/ref>).

Requirements to use the Royal Legislative Decree

In order to delegate the legislative capacity of

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

to the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

, Parliament must make a

(known as Delegation Law or Law of Delegation) to allow it. In this way, the Legislative Decree that is created will already be backed by

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

and will become part of the

with full rights. The law of delegation can take two forms: * Bases Law. With this law, foundations are laid on which the government has to legislate to make an articulated text '' ex novo''. * Ordinary Law. With an ordinary law, the power to recast laws is delegated to the government, so laws that were separate could be united and create a single piece of legislation.

Limits of the Royal Legislative Decree

According to th
Spanish Constitution
there are 3 limits to the application of the Decree-Law: * Material limits. The Legislative Decree can only legislate on matters that Congress has previously allowed (matters reserved to

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. By country France Under Article 46 of the Constitutio ...

cannot be delegated). * Procedural Limits. To approve a Legislative Decree, the government has to follow the guidelines set by law. * Limits of use. The delegation can be used only once.

Judicial control

According to the Constitution, 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 ru ...

is the only body authorized to rule whether a rule with force of law is legal or not. This means that the Constitutional Court can judge not only the

laws Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a Socia ...

, but the rules with force of law as is the case of the Legislative Decree. If the Constitutional Court considers the subject matter is not within its competence, it may declare it totally or partially

unconstitutional In constitutional law, constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applic ...

and expel it from the

. For this reason, it is often considered that the Constitutional Courts are negative legislators, lacking the power to make laws but with the power to repeal all or portions of the unconstitutional laws/acts.

References

Most of the information is taken from the

Spanish Constitution of 1978 The Spanish Constitution () is the supreme law of the Kingdom of Spain. It was enacted after its approval in 1978 in a constitutional referendum; it represents the culmination of the Spanish transition to democracy. The current version was a ...

. {{Reflist Law of Spain

Requirements to use the Royal Legislative Decree

Limits of the Royal Legislative Decree

Judicial control

See also

References