A Royal Decree-Law is a legal rule having the force of a law in the Spanishlegal system. The name of "Royal" is given because it has state rank and it is the King who is responsible for sanctioning and ordering the publication and compliance of the rule. However, when the rule is created by an autonomous government, it receives the name of "Decree-Law" because the King only sanctions the Decrees of the central government.
Requirements to use the Decree-Law
The Constitution says literally: This means that there are two fundamental conditions to use the figure of the Royal Decree-Law; That certain measures must be implemented urgently, and that the Decree-Law is created because of situation of extraordinary necessity.
Limits of the Decree-Law
According to the , there are 3 limits to the application of the Decree-Law:
Circumstantial limits: About the fact that causes the birth of the decree-law.
Material limits: The Decree-Law can not legislate on certain matters.
Temporal limits: The Decree-Law is temporary and must be ratified, rejected or converted into law by the Cortes Generales.
Circumstantial limits
The first of the limits lies in the non-compliance with the initial requirements. If the Decree-Law is not created because of an urgent and extraordinary need, it can be eliminated.
Material limits
The Constitution enumerates a series of subjects on which the Decree-Law does not have the capacity to legislate. These are:
The Decree-Law may not affect the legal system of the basic State institutions.
The Decree-Law may not affect the rights, duties and freedoms of the citizens contained in of the Constitution.
The Decree-Law may not affect the General Electoral Law.
Temporal limits
The Decree-Law is temporary and, according to the Constitution: This means that within 30 days, the Congress must debate whether or not the Decree-Law is valid and has three possibilities:
The Congress can ratify the Decree-Law and it becomes part of the legal system.
The Congress can repeal the Decree-Law and it is expelled from the legal system.
The Congress may process them as Government bills by means of the urgency procedure..
The Royal Decree-Law may occupy the "place" or regulate matters that would be dealt with by ordinary law, but never of those matters reserved for the organic law. With these limits the Constitution tries to avoid the abusive use of the Decree-Law, but since it is the government who decides when it is a moment of urgent and extraordinary need, many times the Decree-Law does not literally respect the initial requirements.
Judicial control
According to the Constitution, the Constitutional Court is the only body authorized to rule whether a rule with force of law is legal or not. This means that the Constitutional Court can judge not only the laws, but the rules with force of law as is the case of the Decree-Law. If the Constitutional Court considers that the situation of urgent and extraordinary need is not such or that if the subject matter is not within its competence, it may declare it totally or partially unconstitutional and expel it from the legal system. For this reason, it is often considered that the Constitutional Courts are negative legislators, lacking the power to make laws but with the power to repeal all or portions of the unconstitutional laws/acts.
