Spain
Spain in Europe
☑️ This element is an expansion of the content of Lawi's courses, guides, tools and other solutions. It offers facts, commentary, and analysis on this European topic. Do you like what you read? Like and share it with your family and friends so that others can discover it too. If you have been forwarded this element, please subscribe here. Note: there are extensive coverage of the Spain’s legal system in the Spanish legal Publication (in Spanish).
Outline of the Country´s Legal System
According to the work "Guide to Foreign and International Citations", by the Journal of International Law and Politics (New York University School of Law): "The Spanish Constitution, which took effect on December 29, 1978, establishes the form of government. Executive power is vested in the Monarch, who is the head of state, but whose role is primarily ceremonial. The monarchy is hereditary. Executive power is exercised primarily by the President (Presidente), who is the head of Government, with the advice of the Council of Ministers (Consejo de Ministros). The President is nominated by the Monarch and elected by the National Assembly. Generally, the Monarch nominates the leader of the party or parties who form a majority of the National Assembly. The First and Second Vice President are nominated by the President and appointed by the Monarch. Members of the Council of Ministers are appointed by the President. Finally, the Council of State (Consejo del Estado) is the supreme consultative organ of the government, although its recommendations are nonbinding. Legislative power is vested in the bicameral National Assembly (Cortes Generales), which consists of the Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) and the Senate (Senado). The 350 Members of the Congress of Deputies are elected by the people on the basis of proportional representation. 208 of the 259 Members of the Senate are directly elected by the people, while the remaining fifty-one Members are appointed by the regional legislatures. Members of both houses serve four-year terms. All legislation is introduced in the Congress of Deputies, although it may be initiated by the leader of the Senate. The Senate has the power to amend or veto legislation initiated by the Congress of Deputies. Once passed by the National Assembly, legislation must be promulgated by the King in order to become law. Spain’s legal system is based on the civil law tradition. Judicial power is vested in the courts, which are administered by the General Council of Judicial Power (Consejo General del Poder Judicial). The Constitutional Court (Tribunal Constitutional) is the highest court for constitutional matters. For all other subject matters, the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) is the highest court. The National Audience (Audiencia Nacional) has jurisdiction to hear matters of national interest, such as extradition proceedings or crimes against the Crown. Lower civil courts include Justices of the Peace (Juzgado de Paz), which hear very minor claims, and Courts of First Instance (Juzgado de Primera Instancia), which hear most civil claims in the first instance. Criminal matters are investigated by the Investigating Magistrate (Juzgado de Instrucción) and decided in the first instance by the Criminal Court (Juzgado de la Penal). The Provincial Audiences (Audiencia Provincial) hear appeals from decisions of both the Juzgado de Paz and the Juzgado de Primera Instancia. Appeals from decisions of the Provincial Audiences are heard by the Supreme Court. Specialized courts include the Administrative Courts (Juzgado de lo Contencioso-Administrativo) and Labor Courts (Juzgado de lo Social). The autonomous communities operate under the umbrella of the central state and are defined as geographical collectives of provinces and municipalities. Each community is granted legislative autonomy and is entitled to self-regulate in certain areas.
History
Philip II
Few characters in history have elicited more widely contradictory estimates than Philip II. Represented by many Protestant writers as a villain, despot, and bigot, he has been extolled by patriotic Spaniards as Philip the Great, champion of religion and right. These conflicting opinions are derived from different views which may be taken of the value and inherent worth of Philip's policies and methods, but what those policies and methods were there can be no doubt. In the first place, Philip II prized Spain as his native country and his main possession—in marked contrast to his father, for he himself had been born in Spain and had resided there during almost all of his life—and he was determined to make Spain the greatest country in the world. In the second place, Philip II was sincerely and piously attached to Catholicism; he abhorred Protestantism as a blasphemous rending of the seamless garment of the Church; and he set his heart upon the universal triumph of his faith. If, by any chance, a question should arise between the advantage of Spain and the best interests of the Church, the former must be sacrificed relentlessly to the latter. Such was the sovereign's stern ideal. No seeming failure of his policies could shake his belief in their fundamental excellence. That whatever he did was done for the greater glory of God, that success or failure depended upon the inscrutable will of the Almighty and not upon himself, were his guiding convictions, which he transmitted to his Spanish successors. Not only was Philip a man of principles and ideals, but he was possessed of a boundless capacity for work and an indomitable will. He preferred tact and diplomacy to war and prowess of arms, though he was quite willing to order his troops to battle if the object, in his opinion, was right. He was personally less accustomed to the sword than to the pen, and no clerk ever toiled more industriously at his papers than did this king. From early morning until far into the night he bent over minutes and reports and other business of kingcraft. Naturally cautious and reserved, he was dignified and princely in public. In his private life, he was orderly and extremely affectionate to his family and servants. Loyalty was Philip's best attribute. There was a less happy side to the character of Philip II. His free use of the Inquisition in order to extirpate heresy throughout his dominions has rendered him in modern eyes an embodiment of bigotry and intolerance, but it must be remembered that he lived in an essentially intolerant age, when religious persecution was stock in trade of Protestants no less than of Catholics. It is likewise true that he constantly employed craft and deceit and was ready to make use of assassination for political purposes, but this too was in accordance with the temper of the times: lawyers then taught, following the precepts of the famous historian and political philosopher, Machiavelli, that Christian morality is a guide for private conduct rather than for public business, and that "the Prince" may act above the laws in order to promote the public good, and even such famous Protestant leaders as Coligny and William the Silent entered into murder plots. But when all due allowances have been made, the student cannot help feeling that the purpose of Philip II would have been served better by the employment of means other than persecution and murder.
Problems Confronting Philip II
The reign of Philip II covered approximately the second half of the sixteenth century (1556-1598). In his efforts to make Spain the greatest power in the world and to restore the unity problems of Christendom, he was doomed to failure. The chief Confronting reason for the failure is simple—the number and variety of the problems and projects with which Philip II was concerned. It was a case of the king putting a finger in too many pies—he was cruelly burned. Could Philip II have devoted all his energies to one thing at a time, he might conceivably have had greater success, but as it was, he must divide his attention between supervising the complex administration of his already wide dominions and annexing in addition the monarchy and empire of Portugal, between promoting a vigorous commercial and colonial policy and suppressing a stubborn revolt in the Netherlands, between championing Catholicism in both England and France and protecting Christendom a gainst the victorious Mohammedans. It was this multiplicity of interests that paralyzed the might of the Spanish monarch, yet each one of his foreign activities was epochal in the history of the country affected. We shall therefore briefly review Philip's activities in order.
Spain under Philip II: Political and Tax
As we have seen, Philip II inherited a number of states which had separate political institutions and customs. He believed in national unification, at least of Spain. National unification implied uniformity, and uniformity implied greater power of the crown. So Philip sought to further the work of his great-grandparents, Ferdinand and Isabella,—absolutism and uniformity became his watchwords in internal administration. Politically Philip made no pretense of consulting the Cortes on legislation, and, although he convoked them to vote new taxes, he established the rule that the old taxes were to be considered as granted in perpetuity and as constituting the ordinary revenue of the crown. He treated the nobles as ornamental rather than useful, retiring them from royal offices in favor of lawyers and other subservient members of the middle class. All business was conducted by correspondence and with a final reference to the king, and the natural result was endless delay. The 10 per cent tax on all sales—the alcabala gradually paralyzed all native industrial enterprise. and the persecution of wealthy and industrious Jews and Moors diminished the resources of the kingdom. Spain, at the close of the century, was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, 1567-1573
Alva levied an enormous tax of one-tenth upon the price of merchandise sold. As the tax was collected on several distinct processes, it absorbed at least seven-tenths of the value of certain goods—of cloth, for instance. The tax, together with the lawless confusion throughout the country, meant the destruction of Flemish manufactures and trade. In 1581 Philip II published a ban against William of Orange, proclaiming him a traitor and an outlaw and offering a reward to any one who would take him dead or alive.
The Bourbons
The Bourbons bore the proud title of princes of the blood because they were direct descendants of a French king. Their descent, to be sure, was from Saint Louis, king in the thirteenth century, and they were now, therefore, only distant cousins of the reigning kings, but as the latter died off, one after another, leaving no direct successors, the Bourbons by the French law of strict male succession became heirs to the royal family. The head of the Bourbons, a certain Anthony, had married the queen of Navarre and had become thereby king of Navarre, although the greater part of that country—the region south of the Pyrenees—had been annexed to Spain in 1512.
Online Resources
Government: la-moncloa.es
Congress of Deputies: congreso.es
Senate: senado.es
Constitutional Court: tribunalconstitucional.es/
Description of Spain
The Concise Publication of the European Union describes spain in the following terms: [1] A century which started bleakly for Spain with defeat by the US in 1898 and the loss of many of its overseas territories, and which continued with a traumatic civil war in the 1930s, ended in confident prosperity. Treated as a pariah after World War II, Spain was not admitted to the UN until 1955. In 1962 it applied to join the EC, but was rejected on the grounds of General Franco's dictatorship. Franco's death in 1975 opened the way for constitutional monarchy, democracy and a renewed application. In 1986, after an arduous negotiation, Spain was admitted to the Community, at the same time as its neighbour Portugal. It had also joined NATO in 1982, but its commitment was half-hearted and in 1986, following a bitterly fought referendum, it withdrew from the integrated military structure, rejoining only in 1998.
The country's regions play a strong role in its affairs, especially in the Basque country (where there is an active terrorist separatist movement, the ETA) and in Catalonia. This phenomenon raises some doubts about Spain's integrity as a nation state and makes it a natural supporter of the EU's Committee of the Regions. As one of the Community's poorest countries, it is a substantial beneficiary of aid from the structural funds.
Although the peseta devalued during the 1992 ERM crisis, Spain was accepted in 1998 as a first-wave participant in the single currency, having achieved a considerable degree of fiscal discipline and having moved rapidly to privatise the state-owned industrial structure created by Franco. This feat, together with the successful hosting of the Olympic Games in 1992, symbolised the country's progress in shaking off the consequences of the past, and the final demise of the peseta in 2002 will go unlamented.
In 2000 the Popular Party of José-Maria Aznar was returned to power with an absolute majority, reflecting the voters' revulsion from the corruption of the Socialist administration that had preceded him. The need for leftist 'anti-fascist credentials' was a thing of the past. Aznar's free-market policies had brought economic success and Spain, as the EU's fifth largest state, had matured into a leader, together with Britain, of the drive for economic liberalism within the Community. Aznar owed his electoral victory in part, too, to his uncompromising stand over terrorism. No longer dependent on coalition with moderate separatists, he reasserted his faith in a unitary Spain.
All in all, then, Spain's experience of the EU has been favourable (see more in this European publication). The country has shed political extremism and gained prosperity. In turn, it has contributed to the Community a new orientation towards Latin America and the Mediterranean states of North Africa. If there are problems on the horizon, other than some disputes with Britain over Gibraltar and the Common Fisheries Policy, these relate chiefly to the fear of losing EU subsidies with the admission to the Community of the impoverished ex-communist countries of Eastern Europe.
Resources
Notas y References
Based on the book "A Concise Publication of the European Union from Aachen to Zollverein", by Rodney Leach (Profile Books; London)
Professional Content and Learning Tools
☑️ Lawi offers educational solutions and professional insight, integrating content, tools, and practical technology to promote lifelong learning, personal and professional improvement, and human progress through knowledge. Our collections feature resources and solutions from a wide range of subject areas, from management and finance to law and cybersecurity. This text is only a brief introduction. If you would like us to expand on this content, please let us know in the comments. If you’re finding our platform and publications valuable, share it with a colleague or friend, leave a comment and consider subscribing if you haven’t already (thanks!). There are group discounts, gift options, and referral bonuses available.