By Olga Cabrero

Published February 2005

Olga Cabrero holds a law degree from the University of Barcelona School of Law where she is also currently enrolled in a History Degree Program. She completed her internships with Cornell Law Library (Ithaca, New York) in May 2000 and October 2001. She speaks Spanish, Catalan, English and French. She worked as a law librarian for several years at the legal department of some enterprises in issues involving international business and legislation research.

Update to an article previously published on LLRX.com on January 15, 2002

<http://www.llrx.com/features/spain.htm >

1. Introduction

2. Political system

2.1. State

2.1.1. Parliament

2.1.2. Government

2.1.3. Judicial power

2.2. Autonomous Communities

2.3. Other constitutional organs of the State

2.3.1. Crown

2.3.2. Constitutional Court

3. Legal system

3.1. Sources of law

3.1.1. Case Law

3.1.2. Legal Doctrine

3.2. National legislation

3.2.1. Types of law

3.2.2. Legislative process

3.3. Autonomous Communities legislation

4. The legal profession.

5. Bibliography

6. Resources

6.1. On-line Resources

6.2. Legal publishers

6.3. Miscellaneous

1. INTRODUCTION

The kingdom of Spain is the main country on the Iberian Peninsula, which it shares with Portugal and the British-dependent territory Gibraltar. It’s situated in the South-West of Europe and its territory also includes the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla (North Africa).

Since 1986, Spain has been a member of the European Union.

The Spanish population is about 40,000,000 people.

On January 1, 2002 Spain joined the Single European Currency with the Euro as its Currency. Prior to that, the national currency was the Peseta.

Castilian is the official Spanish language but coexists with other regional languages that are official in their respective Autonomous Communities (article 3 Spanish Constitution), mainly Catalan, Basque and Galician.

The capital of the State is the city of Madrid (article 5 Spanish Constitution).

Spain is an hour ahead the GMT, except the Canary Islands which are on GMT time zone.

2. POLITICAL SYSTEM

The Spanish Constitution (SC)^{^[1]} was approved by the Spanish legislative chamber (Cortes Generales) on October 31, 1978, ratified by national referendum on December 6 and sanctioned by the King on December 27.

The Constitution contains the basic principles of the political system and is the supreme rule of the legal system.

Spain is defined at Constitution as a social and democratic State of law whose sovereignty belongs to the Spanish people (articles 1.1 ad 1.2 SC)

The political form of the Spanish State is the Parliamentary Monarchy (article 1.3 SC). The King is the Head of State and exercises only the functions expressly attributed to him by the Constitution and the laws (article 56.1 SC).

The country is divided in 17 Autonomous Communities, each with its own Parliament and Government. Even though the Constitution defines Spain as unitary and indissoluble it also recognizes and guarantees the principle of autonomy of nationalities and regions (article 2 SC).

In this way, Spain has three different levels of government (article 137 SC)

· Central government

· Autonomous Communities government

· Municipal government

The limits and domains of each one are specified in Title VIII^th SC (articles 137 to 158). Especially significant are the articles 148 and 149 referred to the distribution of domains between the State and the Autonomous Communities.

2.1 STATE

Central State power is divided among:

· Legislative Chamber or Parliament, which exercises the legislative power

· Executive or Government, which exercises executive power

· Judicial system, which exercises judicial authority

2.1.1 PARLIAMENT

Spanish Parliament is the institution that represents the Spanish people. Its functions can be described mainly as:

· Legislative: producing the main rules of the system

· Budgetary: authorizing the expenses of the State

· Control of the Government

· Parliament also authorizes the international obligations of the State and proposes candidates for other constitutional organs

The Parliament is divided in two chambers (Article 66.1 SC): the Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) [2], defined at article 68 SC and the Senate (Senado)^{^[3]}, defined at article 69 SC

Parliament is regulated by articles 66 to 80 SC and by the own internal regulations of each Chamber:

· Regulation of the Congress, February 24, 1982

· Regulation of the Senate ^{^[4]}, May 3, 1994

This division is mainly a consequence of the recognition of the right to autonomy: the Congress is the chamber of popular representation and the Senate is the chamber of territorial representation. In practice, the Congress holds a superior position over the Senate.

Each chamber has its own organs:

· A President

· A Board (Mesa)^{^[5]}

· Board of Spokespeople (Junta de Portavoces)

· A representative from the Executive, chaired by the President of the Chamber

Both Chambers work in Plenary Sessions and in Commission (article 75.1 SC). Due to the difficulty (or impossibility) of discussing each question in a Plenary Session, Chambers may delegate to the Commissions which study the different proposed regulations and the technicalities involved therein. Commissions have full legislative power in most matters: they can approve bills or proposals of law although the Plenary Session may require debate and voting on any bill or proposal of law (article 75.2 SC). As stated in art 75.3 SC, constitutional reform, international affairs, organic and basis laws and the general budget must be treated in Plenary Session.

The Parliament elects the President of the Government who appoints the Ministers.

The electoral system is partly regulated by SC:

· Articles 23, 68, 69 and 70 for State election

· Article 140 for Municipal government

· Article 152 for Autonomous Communities elections

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