Spanish History: From Monarchy to Modern Democracy
In the name of the King, sovereignty rested only in the King and the Cortes, and there were limited rights and liberties for the citizens.
- The Twentieth Century: The Republic, Constitution of 1931, and Dictatorship
The last years of the nineteenth century and the first of the twentieth century are characterized by an important and profound national crisis in many areas. 1898 is one of the worst years in the history of Spain, as it lost its last overseas colonies: the Philippines and Cuba. The latter was lost due to the war against the United States. Before and progressively, Spain was losing its hegemony in other American territories, and therefore, an important source of income for the already exhausted state coffers.
Years of political instability, continuous changes of government, internal nationalist revolts, and a crisis of confidence in the Crown, which, after the period of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and the call for elections won by the Republican parties, caused the abandonment of the throne by Alfonso XIII and the establishment of the Second Republic on April 14, 1931, and therefore, the promulgation of the new Constitution.
This Constitution promoted the independence, irremovability, and responsibility of the Judges, Magistrates, and Prosecutors. It created the Court of Constitutional Guarantees and the Jury Court and regulated the functions of the President of the Supreme Court.
After the 1936 Uprising, the Civil War, and the subsequent victory of the “nationals,” the dictatorship of General Franco began, which abolished the 1931 Constitution. He proclaimed himself head of the State, and the division of powers disappeared as such, despite the fact that the Spanish Cortes were created on July 17, 1942. The “Fuero de los Españoles” was approved as a declaration of rights and duties, but without any democratic guarantee. Years later, the Public Order Court was created, since it was in charge of prosecuting the crimes committed against the Armed Forces, and all the actions of the Special Court of Masonry and Communism, which was suppressed at the beginning of 1964.
The Law of May 26, 1944, and its successive regulations had special importance, since they promoted the birth and development of the “Judicial School,” as a transcendental element in the Judicial or Fiscal Career, but also for that of the Judicial Secretaries and the Corps of Forensic Doctors.
- The Constitution of 1978 and the Judicial Power
The end of the dictatorship, the trident formed by D. Juan Carlos de Borbón, D. Adolfo Suárez, and D. Torcuato Fernández Miranda, the first work of destruction of the laws of the previous regime to replace them with others based on the principle “of the Law to the Law; passing through the Law,” as well as the effort by all social sectors, made possible the arrival of democracy, the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, and with it, the imposition of true rights and “fundamental” freedoms and the creation of a real and objective division of powers.
The Judicial Power did not depend on the Executive or the Legislative Power, and for the first time in history, it had an effective and independent system of self-government of judges and magistrates through the General Council of the Judiciary.