The exercise of the legislative initiative of the Autonomous Communities before de national Government. Singularity, deficits and proposals de lege ferenda

Abstract

Abstract:
The article 87.2 of the Spanish Constitution assigns to the Assemblies of the Autonomous Communities the power to initiate state laws, power that can exercise before the National Government or the Chamber of Deputies. However, few studies dealing with the regional legislative initiative focusing exclusively on the second of the routes received by that article. Practically it has not been carried out any theoretical commentary try to make sense, to criticize and develop a certain guarantees to the use of the road with the Government.
The procedure for exercising the request to government bills opens some substantive problems (for example, why should stimulate the implementation of the law before a body which is not a legislator?), and others of a procedural nature (mainly concerning the processing to be followed within the Government requests for bills approved by regional parliaments), all of which this study try to respond. For this, it examines each of the two phases through which the exercise of this regional initiative articulates. The first phase takes place within regional parliaments in accordance with the provisions of their respective parliamentary rules in order that such chambers approve the referral to the State Government a proposed bill. The second phase develops within the Government, which, if it decides to grant the request submitted by a regional Assembly, it will initiate the procedure for preparation, approval and subsequent submission to the state Parliament of the bill. We examined its regulatory framework, the assumption of the regional impulse by the Government (the “previous pass” of the Council of Ministers), or the advantages can have this form of the regional legislative initiative against the other form of regional legislative. Of particular interest is analyzed the consequences of the incomprehensible absence of a minimum procedure to prolong the action of the regional initiative with some kind of action to be taken by the Government of the Nation, which has the result of reducing to a “vacuum” the statutory provision of article 87.2 of the Constitution, for which reason it is proposed here some further measures de lege ferenda that are desirable in order to this institution might better fulfil their purposes in an efficient manner.