Substantive Dimension of European Union Law in Spanish Constitutional Court

Abstract

The aim of this essay itself is to verify how the substantive dimension of European Union (EU) law is being integrated and, specifically, how the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFREU) is being vertically applied in the case law of the Spanish Constitutional Court (hereinafter SCC). In order to verify whether this is the case, it is vital first to determine if the legal elements of the EU legal system have evolved in Spanish constitutional case law following the Treaty of Lisbon (hereinafter ToL). Most importantly, if a decisive change can be noticed in the way the principle of the primacy of EU law is being dealt with and whether the binding legal force of the EU Court of Justice’s judgments is taken into consideration as “part” of the sources of Spanish national law. Therefore, it can be assumed that the SCC accepts the vertical enforcement of the CFREU since it was granted primacy and direct effect limited to the scope of application of EU law by national laws on the basis of Article 6.1 of the EU Treaty (hereinafter TEU). However, this will only be possible if it is deemed not to undermine the basic fundamental structures of the Spanish constitutional identity, specifically its fundamental rights, which have their own substantivity on the basis of Article 10.1 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 (hereinafter SC).