El bicentenario de la Constitución de Cádiz y su proyección en Iberamérica

Abstract

The Politic Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy promulgated in Cadiz on March 19th 1812 (the Cadiz Constitution) was one of the best constitutional systems ever conceived on organization of the State which introduced, for the first time in Spain, a legal systemtending to protect the right of property and the liberty of citizens. From this starting point, the author of this article postulates that the Cadiz Constitution represents a really-original synthesis, where different principles coming from the ancient Spanish law and from thelater Spanish Scholastics of Salamanca, combine with other liberal conceptions in voguetoward the end of the 18th century, although acknowledging connotations that befit the Spanish tradition. The culmination of said process meant the breakdown of the absolutist regime by means of existent structures transformation. The Cadiz Constitution leaned, according to the author, on three main premises, thus: (a) on national sovereignty, (b) onseparation of powers doctrine (consequently, on independence of the judicial branch); and(c) on rule of law. Its projection on Spanish America has been remarkable, and it becomes self evident in the purely-judicialist system of their constitutions, all of which ban the Executive and Legislative branches from exercising judicial functions, differently from the Constitution of the United States of America, where administrative primary jurisdiction is constitutionally allowed.