Spain / Constitutional Court / Sentencia 137/2025

Popular Parliamentary Groups v Congress of Deputies, the Senate, and the State Attorney (abogado del Estado)
Deciding body type
National Court/Tribunal
Deciding body
Constitutional Court
Type
Decision
Decision date
26/06/2025
ECLI (European case law identifier)
ECLI:ES:TC:2025:137
  • Spain / Constitutional Court / Sentencia 137/2025

    Key facts of the case:

    This case concerns an appeal to the Constitutional Court filed by more than fifty Popular Group deputies and senators against the Basic Law 1/2024.The appellants argued that the Amnesty Law is unconstitutional as the Spanish Constitution does not authorize amnesty. The appellants further argued that the law violates fundamental principles such as the rule of law, the separation of powers,  the obligation to comply with final judicial decisions, and the principle of equality. The law was framed as a measure to guarantee coexistence and institutional normalisation following the conflict derived from the Catalan independence process, which included the consultations of 9 November 2014, and 1 October 2017. Opponents alleged that the law constituted a self-amnesty resulting from a political transaction - votes for the government's investiture in exchange for impunity for leaders of the separatist movement -and infringed upon the right to effective judicial protection for victims of the underlying crimes.

    Key legal question raised by the court:

    The key legal question is whether the Basic Law 1/2024  is constitutional, specifically whether the Spanish Constitution contains an implicit or explicit prohibition against granting amnesties, and whether the law violates fundamental principles such as the rule of law, the separation of powers and equality.

    Outcome of the case:

    The Constitutional Court partially admitted the appeal. The Court held that there is no constitutional prohibition against granting amnesties. 

  • Paragraphs referring to EU Charter

    At the same time, the foregoing does not, of course, preclude the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) concerning the Charter  from being applied by this Court, pursuant to Article 10.2 of the Spanish Constitution, as an interpretative source for determining the scope of the rights and freedoms enshrined in our constitutional framework (see, among others, STC 87/2022, of 28 June, Legal Ground 5).

    Even in such cases, however, “the standard for assessing the constitutionality of the law under review remains defined by the constitutional provision that enshrines the relevant right or freedom, albeit interpreted—regarding the precise contours of its content—in accordance with the international treaties or agreements concerned .

  • Paragraphs referring to EU Charter (original language)

    Al tiempo, lo expuesto tampoco obsta, obviamente, para que la jurisprudencia del Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea recaída en relación con la Carta de derechos fundamentales de la Unión Europea (CDFUE) sea utilizada por este tribunal, por efecto del art. 10.2 CE, como fuente de interpretación para determinar el alcance de los derechos y libertades contemplados en nuestra Constitución (por todas, STC 87/2022, de 28 de junio, FJ 5).

    Pero incluso en estos supuestos «la medida de la constitucionalidad de la ley enjuiciada seguiría estando integrada por el precepto constitucional definidor del derecho o libertad, si bien interpretado, en cuanto a los perfiles exactos de su contenido, de conformidad con los tratados o acuerdos internacionales de que se trate (por todas, SSTC 28/1991, de 14 de febrero, FJ 5; 128/1999, de 1 de julio, FJ 9; 208/1999, de 11 de noviembre, FJ 4; 45/2001, de 15 de febrero, FJ 7; 38/2002, de 14 de febrero, FJ 11, y 173/2005, de 23 de junio, FJ 9), incluidos, en su caso, los Tratados de la Unión Europea y la Carta de derechos fundamentales de la Unión Europea, que tiene la misma eficacia jurídica vinculante que los Tratados, en virtud de lo dispuesto en el Tratado de Lisboa de 13 de diciembre de 2007» (STC 41/2013, de 14 de febrero, FJ 2).