Spanish Legal System: Rule Hierarchy and Inter-System Relations
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Understanding Legal Regulations and System Structures
Legal regulations encompass various forms, including bylaws and ministerial decrees, forming the foundational elements of a legal system.
Criteria for Competence in Legal Systems
Rules are sorted by a horizontal dimension, creating different areas of authority where various bodies are attributed the power to make rules. For instance, Autonomous Communities (ACs) have responsibility for health, agriculture, or commerce, while the state has jurisdiction over international relations or defense. These represent different material competencies attributed to specific organs; thus, state law differs from regional competence.
Criterion of Procedure: Development and Approval
In some systems, rules are not hierarchically ordered but are defined by their procedure, including their development and approval process.
Criterion of Temporal Ordering: Rule Supersession
Rules are ordered temporarily, taking into account the principle of chronological order. They are sorted according to their production time. The rule that was made last, the subsequent rule, supersedes the previous standard. This implies a hierarchy where a later rule supersedes an earlier one.
In the Spanish system, rules belong to a broader system, but Autonomous Communities can also develop their own standards. This results in different legal systems at the state (central) and autonomous (sub)systems.
This is a geographically complex system due to the rules of the different autonomous communities, forming a general state system and 17 autonomous sub-systems, as set forth in our Constitution.
Relationships Between Legal Systems in Spain
Relationship of Separation: Distinct Legal Entities
Each subsystem has its own entity and its own rules. There is no hierarchical relationship between the central and autonomous systems in this regard.
Cooperative Relationship: EU Law and Shared Powers
There are several subsystems, each with its own rights, but they are united by a common standard, such as European Union (EU) law, which connects the state with the various autonomous systems. None of the autonomous subsystems may infringe EU law. EU law has divided powers between the various territorial entities, connecting the state's general order with its various systems. It establishes a division of powers in certain areas and requires cooperation among state and regional governments. The state sets the framework within which Autonomous Communities (CCAAs) must develop and implement their rules.
Relations of Supremacy: State Law and Constitutional Principles
In certain matters, the law of the State meets the criteria of prevalence and superiority over the various autonomous systems. There are matters in which state law applies as the prevalent or supplementary right, as outlined in Article 149.3 of the Spanish Constitution (CE):
"Matters not expressly assigned to the State by this Constitution may fall under the regional governments, under their respective statutes. Jurisdiction on matters not claimed by Statutes of Autonomy for the State whose laws shall prevail in case of conflict, the Autonomous Communities in everything that is not attributed to the exclusive jurisdiction thereof. State law shall, in any case, be supplementary to the right of the Autonomous Communities."