El recurso de amparo en la Segunda República española, El Tribunal de Garantías Constitucionales

Abstract

This article analyses the meaning and the importance of the recurso de amparo appeal procedures in the Constitution of the Second Spanish Republic, and the grounds on which such appeals could be lodgeg. This procedure eliminated areas in which there was no political liability, by creating a channel for the enforcement of individual rights before the Court of Constitutional Guarantees. The author studies the scope of enforceable rights (paying special attention to the Public Order Act), the acts that may be contested under a recurso de amparo appeal, the legal requirements that must be met to lodge such appeals, and the role of the Fast-Track Courts (tribunales de urgencia) in both theory and practice (which initially gave the recurso de amparo appeal a subsidiary nature). He then goes on to analyse the requirements for a valid appeal and how the appeal process works, ending the article with a section on the application and the evaluation of the recurso de amparo appeal procedures during the Second Republic (1931-1936) and during the Civil War period following it (1936-1939).