The principle of bilateralism in the statutory reforms following constitutional court ruling: STC 31/2010. Desire and reality

Abstract

In the wake of events in Catalonia, the various processes of statutory reform that have taken place in Spain in recent years have focused particular attention on regulating institutional relations between Autonomous Communities. Accordingly, it can be stated that including legal sections specifically devoted to said question in the revised basic institutional norms of the Autonomies, in which the various spatial expressions of autonomous community relations are set out, emerges as one of the main features characterising the major changes to the content concerning relations. In this vein, we should remember that, although institutional relations do not figure in the list of necessary contents that Article 147.2 of the Spanish Constitution (SC) assigns to the statutory norm, such relations' direct link to self-government entirely justifies their inclusion in the basic institutional norm of the Autonomous Community. What needs to be clarified, therefore, is not the question of whether they should be included in the statute but rather the constitutional limits to which they should be subject.