La política judicial del Tribunal Constitucional español en los procesos de ratificación de Tratados de la Unión Europea: aproximación desde un nuevo realismo jurídico

In the context of the processes of ratification of European Union Treaties, the Spanish Constitutional Court has issued two «Declaraciones» on the constitutionality of the Maastricht Treaty and the Constitutional Treaty. The two showed different outcomes: the first case was declared unconstitutional...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Castillo Ortiz, Pablo José
Format: Article
Language:Spanish
Published: Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales (España) 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/oaiart?codigo=4208495
Source:Revista de estudios políticos, ISSN 0048-7694, Nº 159, 2013, pags. 107-138
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Summary: In the context of the processes of ratification of European Union Treaties, the Spanish Constitutional Court has issued two «Declaraciones» on the constitutionality of the Maastricht Treaty and the Constitutional Treaty. The two showed different outcomes: the first case was declared unconstitutional, while the second one was declared constitutional. Behaviorist approaches, which explain judicial behaviour as a result of power struggles between partisan blocks within the institution can not explain cases like ours, in which the preferences of the main political actors converged. The article shows that an argument based in the institutional constraints defined by the procederes of constitucional amendment applicable to each case offers a better explanation of the different outcomes.