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Multilevel Protection of Fundamental Rights in Europe: The Case of Spain

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Common European Legal Thinking

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Abstract

Internationally, like in Europe, a culture of human rights has gradually been built, in the framework of what some have called “international law of constitutional States,” and which Rawls rechristened as “The Law of Peoples”. This was the grounding of a generalised awareness in regard to the necessary international protection of rights and freedoms, and, specifically, their judicial protection, much more efficient than diplomatic protection, which prevailed until a few years ago. However, we cannot refer to a universal culture, since democracies are still in the minority, and there are a number of totalitarian regimes in which fundamental rights are violated daily. These regimes are a reality that are stubbornly contemptuous of the more than one hundred international instruments, including declarations and treaties, concerning human rights, that have been adopted since 1945, as well as the creation of an abundance of bodies for the promotion thereof.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Rawls 1993, p. 36 et seqq.; Rawls 1999, § 2.

  2. 2.

    Nikken 1987.

  3. 3.

    Díez‐Picazo 2006; Caamaño 2007. Concerning the role of local and regional authorities and of the Committee of the Regions in the multilevel protection of the fundamental rights, cf. the Committee of the Regions Study 2014.

  4. 4.

    “The State is still the centre of reference for the recognition and protection of rights”, Balaguer 2008, p. 134.

  5. 5.

    Pernice 1999; Pernice and Kanitz 2004; D’Atena and Grossi 2004; Bilancia 2006; Di Federico 2011.

  6. 6.

    Tajadura 2010, p. 25.

  7. 7.

    Fabbrini 2010, p. 9 et seqq.

  8. 8.

    Torres del Moral 2010, p. 109 et seqq.

  9. 9.

    González Campos 1999, p. 42 and p. 47.

  10. 10.

    Sáiz Arnáiz 2008, p. 193.

  11. 11.

    Sáiz Arnáiz 2008, p. 196.

  12. 12.

    Díez‐Picazo 2003, p. 153 et seq.

  13. 13.

    Cf. for example, the Spanish Constitutional Court Judgment No. 36/1984 (14 March 1984), II. 3.: “Art. 10.2 of the Spanish Constitution’s reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to the international treaties and agreements in this connection ratified by Spain for the interpretation of constitutional rules regarding fundamental rights and public freedoms, authorises and indeed advocates, referring […] to the doctrine established by the ECtHR”. However, this does not mean that the Constitutional Court has always assumed the doctrine of the ECtHR, and in every area. In this regard, in Spanish Constitutional Court Judgment No. 236/2007 (7 November 2007), the Court expressly states (II. 11.) some differences of criteria between the two courts, highlighting the contrast between the respective lines of case law in relation with the existence or otherwise of a “right to family life”.

  14. 14.

    García de Enterría 1990; Vidal Prado 2001.

  15. 15.

    Sáiz Arnáiz 2008, p. 195.

  16. 16.

    Fernández Sánchez 1987, p. 56.

  17. 17.

    García Roca and Santolaya 2005, p. 21–23.

  18. 18.

    Ripol Carulla 2007, p. 33.

  19. 19.

    Appl. No. 5310/71, Ireland v. The United Kingdom (ECtHR 18 January 1978).

  20. 20.

    Appl. No. 2122/64, Wemhoff v. Germany (ECtHR 27 June 1967).

  21. 21.

    Fernández Sánchez 1987, p. 138. In Spanish: “efecto de cosa interpretada de las sentencias”.

  22. 22.

    Díez‐Picazo 2006, p. 18.

  23. 23.

    Fossas 2008, p. 174. Aláez rejects this opinion, and takes the view that the interpretation of the ECtHR cannot alter the dogma of fundamental constitutional rights. Cf. Aláez 2009.

  24. 24.

    Tenorio 1997, p. 166.

  25. 25.

    Belorgey 2007.

  26. 26.

    Belorgey 2007, p. 360.

  27. 27.

    Jimena Quesada 2006, p. 65.

  28. 28.

    According to Tammes, soft law is a phenomenon that has the characteristics of “law” in its directive effect to influence the will and restrict the liberty of those to whom [it] is addressed, but with the impression that something is missing in the legal or binding nature of the law as we know it from daily life. Cf. Tammes 1983.

  29. 29.

    Accordingly, the Council of State has asserted that the conventions and agreements of the European Council have supra‐legislative value in regard to the interpretation of fundamental rights and public freedoms, since the Constitutional Court, pursuant to Art. 10.2 of the Constitution, has interpreted the regulations relating to fundamental rights and freedoms that are recognised by the Constitution in accordance with the provisions of various European Council conventions. See Report by the Council of State concerning the insertion of European law into Spanish legislation, of 14 February 2008, p. 289.

  30. 30.

    Vittorino 2003, p. 111.

  31. 31.

    Stern and Tettinger 2005; Stern and Tettinger 2006.

  32. 32.

    Case C‐81/05, Anacleto Cordero Alonso v. Fondo de Garantía Salarial (Fogasa) (ECJ 7 September 2006).

  33. 33.

    Spanish Constitutional Court Judgment No. 306/1993 (30 November 1993).

  34. 34.

    Appl. No. 45036/98, Bosphorus (ECtHR 30 June 2005) para 155 et seq.

  35. 35.

    Case 29/69, Stauder v. City of Ulm (ECJ 20 November 1969).

  36. 36.

    Case 11/70, Internationale Handelsgesellschaft (ECJ 17 December 1970); Case 4/73, Nold v. Commission (ECJ 14 May 1974).

  37. 37.

    The aforementioned judgment in the Nold case.

  38. 38.

    Case 36/75, Rutili (ECJ 28 October 1975).

  39. 39.

    Favoreu 2005, p. 252 et seq.

  40. 40.

    Gavara de Cara 2010a, p. 79–127 (“La proyección social de la Constitución: una implementación multinivel”); Gavara de Cara 2010b.

  41. 41.

    Cruz Villalón 1991, p. 134.

  42. 42.

    González Pascual 2007, p. 106 et seq.

  43. 43.

    In general, concerning relations between statutory rights and competencies in the Spanish case, cf. Gavara de Cara, Mateu Vilaseca and Vallès Vives 2010.

  44. 44.

    Balaguer 2008, p. 140.

  45. 45.

    Concerning social rights as competencies, cf. González Pascual 2007, p. 101 et seqq. Concerning social rights in Statutes of Regional Autonomies, cf. López Menudo 2009; De la Quadra‐Salcedo 2008.

  46. 46.

    Castellá 2004, p. 168.

  47. 47.

    Spanish Constitutional Court Judgment No. 247/2007 (12 December 2007), II. 15.

  48. 48.

    For example, Art. 8.3 of the Statute of Autonomy of Castilla y León provides that the statutory provisions regarding rights and freedoms (title I) may not be developed, applied and interpreted so as to reduce or restrict fundamental rights recognised by the Constitution and by the international treaties and conventions ratified by Spain. Consequently, their functions and scope go considerably beyond their use as a mere parameter for control in the development of statutory rights.

  49. 49.

    Favoreu 2005, p. 254–255.

  50. 50.

    Appl. No. 25803/04 and 25817/04, Batasuna (ECtHR 30 June 2009). Cf. Rodríguez‐Vergara Díaz 2010.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Distance University, Madrid, Spain

    Dr. iur. Carlos Vidal Prado

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  1. Dr. iur. Carlos Vidal Prado
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty for Economics, Law and Social Sc, University of Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany

    Hermann-Josef Blanke

  2. Court of Justice of the European Union, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

    Pedro Cruz Villalón

  3. University of Applied Sciences for Administration and Public Management in the State of Lower Saxony, Hannover, Germany

    Tonio Klein

  4. Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy

    Jacques Ziller

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Vidal Prado, C. (2015). Multilevel Protection of Fundamental Rights in Europe: The Case of Spain. In: Blanke, HJ., Cruz Villalón, P., Klein, T., Ziller, J. (eds) Common European Legal Thinking. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19300-7_10

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