The Spanisnh Constitutional Court: Its contribution to the development of the Constitution

Abstract

The author has compiled a special selection of Spanish Constitutional Court rulings that he is certain to categorize as autobiographical. The essay contains resolutions that particularly drew his attention either before he joined the institution or while he was a full member of it. Several topics will be discussed with the reader: Equality before the law, the concept of reasonableness, gender discrimination with special reference to its indirect dimension, conflicts between the central administration of the State and the autonomous regions, abortion, informative self-determination, the reform of the individual appeal for constitutional protection (“recurso de amparo”), interpretative judgements with special reference to the Statute of Catalonia, the secularity of the State, as well as ideological freedom and conscientious objection will.