La evolución del régimen jurídico del ruido

Abstract

Based on a little story, the judicial sentence that impose to a Spanish medium-city the payment of about seven thousand euros for the damages caused to a citizen due to the public celebrations promoted by the City Council, we’ll try to show the evolution of the Spanish Legislation on the issue of noise pollution. This evolution focuses on two fronts, (i) the European Community rules which forced the Spanish Parliament to provide to the Public Administration with potentially enforcement tools, and (ii) the recognition by the European Court of Human Rights of the right to tranquillity and to peaceful rest as a content of the right to inviolability of the family home, and the duty of the Government to guarantee it, which sometimes results in liability of the Public Administration for acts or omissions. Both sides of the evolution are connected: the existence of legal enforcements instruments transform the non action of the Public Administration into omission in the legal technical sense and enables the enactment of judicial sentences on damage compensation.