THE PRESUMED ENDORSEMENT OF THE ACTS OF THE SPANISH KING AND THE MESSAGE OF 3 OCTOBER 2017

Abstract

Article 56.3 of the Spanish Constitution indicates that the acts of the Spanish king “shall always be countersigned in the manner established in Article 64; without such coutersignature they shall not be valid, except as provided under Article 65.2”. Accordingly, the acts of the king can receive an express endorsement, a tacit endorsement or a presumed endorsement, which consists of the presumption that there has been an endorsement of the royal act, even if there is no reliable evidence of it. In this regard, on 3 October 2017, the king addressed a message to the Spanish people on the occasion of the independence process that was taking place in Catalonia, and this message, given that it was not stated that it had received either an express or a tacit endorsement, is assumed to have had a presumed endorsement. This text aims to analyse the concept of presumed endorsement and raises the problems it can pose in situations such as the one originating from the royal message of 3 October 2017. The conclusion that we come to is that the endorsement of the acts of the king should always be express, or tacit at most, but never presumed.