SEGURIDAD JURIDICA EN LAS REFORMAS ESTATUTARIAS.

Abstract

Political aspects and options aside, the upsurge in regional statutes as a consequence of Spain's own 1978 Constitution, and especially as a result of the procedural form with which the Statue of Catalonia was passed, can be looked at strictly from the point of view of legal technicality. In response to the craze for statutory reform, we offer a guideline or view based on legal certainty that averts conflictiveness, a pathology of risk of losing the certainty and clarity of the Constitution, as ORTEGA Y GASSET warned us. The analysis underlines the substantial aspects of legislation, with the novelty of listing the "principles" as "rules" in the Preliminary Title (HERNANDEZ GIL). The core idea is that the starting point is Spain, from which values spring. The Council of State's report on constitutional reform ("El Informe del Consejo de Estado sobre la reforma constitucional", Madrid, 2006) puts forth a clear doctrine on the nature of the State and its relations with the Autonomous Communities (regions of Spain). The legal/technical analysis of the rules on statute procedure (Title VIII of the Constitution) postulates limits as well as perspectives that avoid conflictive situations. This is especially so in the chapter on powers, such as the functions and organisation of Notaries and Registries, which may be envisioned preventatively from the standpoint of certainty/uncertainty. This would serenely permit the stage to be set for a constitutional reform in which we would be able to discern with certainty what powers, by their very nature, belong exclusively to the State and what powers may be linked to the Autonomous Communities, in line with the principles of equality and solidarity, not to mention the principles of legality and legal certainty, which, as KELSEN said, constitute the formal architecture of the rules of an operational constitution.