A Royal Decree-Law is a legal rule having the force of a

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

in the Spanish

legal system A legal system is a set of legal norms and institutions and processes by which those norms are applied, often within a particular jurisdiction or community. It may also be referred to as a legal order. The comparative study of legal systems is th ...

. The name of "Royal" is given because it has state rank and it is the

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

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 A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or deleg ...

(the autonomous community Decree-Law is sanctioned by the President of the Autonomous Community in the name of the KingPromulgación y publicación de leyes de comunidades autónomas
/ref>).

Requirements to use the Decree-Law

The

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

says literally: This means that there are two fundamental conditions to use the form of the Royal Decree-Law: that the measures must be implemented urgently (and cannot be carried out by the normal parliamentary process because it is very slow), and that the Decree-Law is created because of situation of extraordinary necessity.

Limits of the Decree-Law

According to th
Spanish Constitution
there are 3 limits to the application of the Decree-Law: * Circumstantial limits: About the fact that causes the birth of the decree-law (see Requirements). * 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 The (; ) are the Bicameralism, bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house) and the Senate of Spain, Senate (the upper house). The Congress of Deputies meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, ...

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 i
Part I
of the Constitution. * The Decree-Law may not affect the system of Self-governing of the

Autonomous Communities The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Spa ...

. * The Decree-Law may not affect the General Electoral Law.

Time limits

The Decree-Law is temporary and, according to the

: This means that within 30 days, the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

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

(the Decree-Law is part of the legal system since its creation, but needs the ratification of the Congress to remain so). # The Congress can repeal the Decree-Law and it is removed from the legal system. # The Congress may process them as Government bills by means of the urgency procedure. (This allows the Decree-Law to elevate to the status of Law.) 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 An organic law is a law, or system of laws, that form the foundation of a government, corporation or any other organization's body of rules. A constitution is a particular form of organic law. By country France Under Article 46 of the Constitutio ...

(fundamental rights, autonomy statutes, electoral regime, etc.). With these limits the Constitution tries to prevent abuse of the Decree-Law, but since it is the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

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 A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

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 Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a Socia ...

, but the rules with force of law as is the case of the Decree-Law. If the Constitutional Court considers that the situation is not one of urgent and extraordinary need or that if the subject matter is not within its competence, it may declare it totally or partially

unconstitutional In constitutional law, constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applic ...

and expel it from the

. 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.

References

{{Reflist Law of Spain