Spanish Legislative Power: State and Regional Laws

Legislator, State Laws, and Laws of the Regions

Among the functions traditionally attributed to the State, the legislative function may be defined as one whose purpose is the development of standards, an expression of popular will, and whose strength prevails over any other legal source, being only subject to the constitution as the will and expression of constituent power. The legislative function is ordinarily exercised by organs of a representative character (parliaments) or, exceptionally, by other bodies (usually the government) that may issue, within certain limits, rules with the same force as laws.

However, the legislative power is precisely the specific legal authority enabling the exercise of the function to make laws. The Spanish Constitution ascribes this power to Parliament.

Due to the territorial structure of the Spanish State, the legislative function does not correspond only to Parliament in our constitutional system. The existence of autonomous political entities endowed with their own parliament and statutes makes the legislative power also attributed to the parliaments of those autonomous regions.

State laws and laws of the Autonomous Communities have the same rank and strength, but they have different material fields bounded by the block of constitutionality. This block is integrated by the policy set by the constitution, the Statutes of Autonomy, and certain state laws that distribute powers between the proper areas of regulatory powers of the State and the Autonomous Communities. This criterion of separation between the proper areas of regulatory powers of the State and the Autonomous Communities is a manifestation of the principle of competition.

Organic Law and Ordinary Law

Organic laws are those that deal only with certain matters preset beforehand by the constitution itself, and they require a special approval procedure also expressly provided for by the higher standard. Ordinary laws are all the others.

Organic laws are regulated in Article 81 of the Constitution, which includes both the material and formal aspects of such laws. As for the material field reserved for them, paragraph 1 establishes that organic laws concern:

• The development of fundamental rights and public freedoms.
• Those approving the Statutes of Autonomy and the general electoral system.
• Any others stipulated by the Constitution.

From a formal perspective, the Organic Act has a specific procedure for approval. Thus, paragraph 2 of Article 81 of the EC states that:

"The adoption, amendment, or repeal of the organic laws requires an absolute majority in Congress in a final vote on the entire project."

Finally, it is important to note that organic and ordinary laws have the same status and force of law.