La devaluación de los derechos estatutarios y sus garantías

Authors

  • Juana Morcillo Moreno

Keywords:

Reform of basic regional acts, individual rights, principles, guarantees, Ombudsman, Consejo de Garantías Estatutarias, judicial review

Abstract

The critical situation of the economy and the neutralization by the Constitutional Court of Spain of some of the excesses that newly-passed basic regional acts (Estatutos de Autonomía) had included make it necessary to inquire about the current status of individual rights therein. After nearly a decade of intense debate and legal changes, these individual rights seem to stand exactly at the same point. Including individual rights in basic regional acts was certainly possible. But was it necessary? This paper seeks to contextualize the main scientific contributions to this debate. More importantly it also analyzes the interpretative path that the Constitutional Court has chosen in two important judgments of 2007 and 2010, which determine the meaning and the scope of individual rights in the self-governing Communities. The conclusions result in dramatic devaluation of the legal nature of these rights and therefore significant weakening of legal guarantees. However, this change in legal nature does not necessarily damage the individual’s legal status considered as a whole.

Issue

Section

STUDIES