The suspension of fundamental rights in Spain: a controversial legal concept

Abstract

Suspension of the exercise of fundamental rights is one of the most common manifestations of emergency constitutional law in any country, something that is also reflected in the Spanish Constitution of 1978. Specifically, in the form of article 55, designed to deal with dangers ranging from the most serious disturbances of public order-article 55.1- to certain anti-terrorist investigations-article 55.2-. In all these cases, the effectiveness of the response must go hand in hand with a guarantee to be modulated according to the measures adopted, a particularly complex task if we are dealing with general suspensions as a result of insufficiently regulated emergencies. After all, if states of emergency and siege are the states that provide the most safeguards, at what point does a limitation not foreseen in the rule require such activation on the grounds that it is suspensive? This is the key question that still hangs over our crisis law and the main focus of this paper.