Revista d'Estudis Autonòmics i Federals (Mar 2011)
ESTATUTO DE AUTONOMÍA DE CATALUÑA, GOBIERNOS LOCALES Y TRIBUNAL CONSTITUCIONAL
Abstract
This article analyses the impact of Ruling 31/2010 of 28 June by the Constitutional Court on the regulation of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia on the subject of local governance. Specifically, it is focussed on the two most important questions: the conferring of powers to the Generalitat in the local sphere and the statutory regulation of the historical administrative demarcations (veguerías). In relation to the first of these questions, there is an exhaustive analysis of the state of jurisprudence of the constitutional Court on this matter, in order to later consider the content of the statutory regulations and the Ruling itself. From this, it concludes that in general terms the Court has not changed the basic lines of its jurisprudence, thus frustrating the attempt to increase the weight of autonomous powers set out by the statutory legislator. With respect to the veguerías, the analysis centres on the relation of the State to the constitutional guarantee of the province. The starting point for the interpretation by the Constitutional Court is also the maintenance of its traditional jurisprudence, preventing any attempt of substitution of the province, although it does leave the specific determination of the nature of the veguería in the hands of the Catalan legislator. In this sense, there is particular interest in the study of the recentLaw of veguerias, which according to the text, sets out from the identification of the difference between vegueria and province.
