Constitutional and Legal Problems of the Application of Restrictive Measures in Spain (2020–2021)

Introduction: The article is devoted to the study of the practice of applying restrictive measures in Spain during 2020–2021. The relevance of the work is due to the need to study foreign doctrinal developments in order to identify problematic aspects and possible reception of promising practices. Particular attention is paid to the issue of the moral obsolescence of legal provisions in the context of protecting constitutional values. The aim of the study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the provisions of the Spanish Constitution and legislation concerning the introduction of restrictive measures, with a view to identifying the level of their normative “plasticity”.

Methodology and materials: The study is based on the Constitution of Spain, national and regional legislation, Royal Decree-Laws, decisions of the Spanish Constitutional Court, and scholarly literature. The research employs inductive, formal-dogmatic, and formal-legal methods used to analyze, interpret, and systematize legal norms. The methodology is determined by the scholarly objective of conceptualizing the problem of adapting social relations under the functioning of special governance regimes. In the course of social progression, these regimes retain relative stability, which gives rise to a collision of private and public interests and creates an imbalance of guarantees.

Results and discussion: The period of 2020–2021 posed a non-trivial challenge regarding the introduction of restrictive measures under circumstances only conditionally familiar to Spanish practice. An analysis of regulatory provisions, judicial practice, and scholarly research revealed a number of legal defects: 1. The existence of a conflict of competences among public authorities as defined in art. 148–149 of the Spanish Constitution (healthcare, coordination of governance, and regulation of human rights). The specific lexical construction of legal norms contributes to institutional disharmony and negatively affects the assessment of the normative “plasticity” of legal sources. 2. The “state of alarm” regime does not provide for the restriction of human rights, a measure permitted under the declaration of a “state of emergency”. An analysis of the Spanish Constitution, Spain’s Law of June 1 № 4/1981, Royal Decree-Laws, and decisions of the Spanish Constitutional Court shows that the COVID-19 epidemic met the criteria of both regimes, which led to difficulties in legal interpretation. 3. The existing institutional “center – autonomies” model predetermines the heterogeneity of law enforcement, which is positive for cultural individualization but problematic for maintaining a unified system of human rights guarantees.

Conclusions: The examined example of a local political crisis represents a concentrated expression of the vulnerabilities of Spain’s national legal system. The overall level of “plasticity” of normative sources should be recognized as low, which is explained by the specifics of their lexical and semantic construction (the multiple interpretations of Articles 55, 148, and 149 of the Spanish Constitution), as well as the historically conservative nature of Spanish constitutionalism. The need to reconsider the legal category of the “state of alarm” is emphasized. The formulated conclusions have practical significance, as the issue of adaptability of constitutional material is universal, indicating the need for doctrinal revision in other national legal systems as well.

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