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Soft Law Governance in Times of Coronavirus in Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2021

Dolores UTRILLA FERNÁNDEZ-BERMEJO
Dolores UTRILLA FERNÁNDEZ-BERMEJO*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha, Spain; email: MDolores.Utrilla@uclm.es.
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Abstract

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, between March and July 2020, Spanish national and regional authorities made extensive use of soft law mechanisms to fight the spread of the virus and to tackle the consequences of the crisis. Soft law was used either as an instrument in and of itself, or as a justification for hard law instruments, with more than 200 non-binding measures being enacted by the state and by the Autonomous Communities. Spanish courts also used soft law as a tool to interpret existing hard law instruments, Such uses give rise to concerns about the transparency of administrative action and the principle of legal certainty. Moreover, the widespread use of soft law to justify the adoption of binding measures restricting fundamental rights might have consequences for democratic accountability and judicial control of executive action. This article indicates the need to reconsider the current system of constitutional and legal constraints attached to this form of regulation, by introducing some binding procedural rules relating to its adoption and its publication, and by clarifying its legal effects and the mechanism through which it can be enforced by courts.

Type
Articles
Information
European Journal of Risk Regulation , Volume 12 , Special Issue 1: Special Issue on COVID-19 and Soft Law , March 2021 , pp. 111 - 126
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This article has been drafted in the framework of the research project “El Derecho administrativo de Castilla-La Mancha: Diagnóstico y posibilidades de evolución en un contexto multinivel” (SBPLY/17/180501/000140) funded by the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha and with the support of a grant of the Spanish National Research Plan (PGC2018- 101476-B-I00).

References

1 Royal Decree 463/2020 of 14 March declaring the state of alarm.

2 The six extensions of the state of alarm were approved by the Royal Decree 476/2020 of 27 March, Royal Decree 487/2020 of 10 April, Royal Decree 492/2020 of 24 April, Royal Decree 514/2020 of 8 May, Royal Decree 537/2020 of 22 May and Royal Decree 555/2020 of 5 June.

3 See in this regard the special issue on legal dimensions of the pandemic “Coronavirus y otros problemas” (2020) 86–87 El Cronista del Estado Social y Democrático de Derecho, March–April 2020. See also GV Crespo, “Repensando el derecho de excepción. La crisis del coronavirus y los tres aprendizajes sobre el derecho de necesidad en el ordenamiento jurídico español” (2020) 54 Revista General de Derecho Administrativo.

4 For a comprehensive study on internal administrative soft law, see MM Rebato, “Circulares, instrucciones y órdenes de servicio: naturaleza y régimen jurídico” (1998) 147 Revista de Administración Pública 159.

5 In Spain, the term “Administrations” is frequently used to refer the three levels of territorial administration, which are relatively autonomous (state, regional and local administration).

6 On this, see JC Covilla, “El soft law como instrumento para dirigir al gobierno local” (2019) 12 Revista de Estudios de la Administración Local y Autonómica 97.

7 D Sarmiento, El soft law administrativo (Thomson-Civitas 2008) 120–21.

8 Spanish Ministries of Health and Work, “Procedimiento de actuación para los servicios de prevención de riesgos laborales frente a la exposición al SARS-CoV-2” (8 June 2020) <www.mscbs.gob.es/profesionales/saludPublica/ccayes/alertasActual/nCov-China/documentos/PrevencionRRLL_COVID-19.pdf> (last accessed 25 September 2020).

9 Spanish Ministry of Health, “Buenas prácticas en los centros de trabajo: medidas para la prevención de contagios del COVID-19” (11 April 2020) <www.mscbs.gob.es/gabinetePrensa/notaPrensa/pdf/GUIA110420172227802.pdf> (last accessed 25 September 2020).

10 Spanish Ministry of Home Affairs, “Documento técnico sobre recomendaciones en centros penitenciarios en relación al COVID-19” (no longer available on the Ministry’s website).

11 Spanish Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, “Guía de buenas prácticas para los establecimientos del sector comercial” <www.mincotur.gob.es/es-es/gabineteprensa/notasprensa/2020/documents/buenas%20pr%C3%A1cticas%20establecimientos%20sector%20comercial.pdf> (last accessed 25 September 2020).

12 Spanish Ministry of Universities, “Recomendaciones a la comunidad universitaria para adaptar el curso universitario 2020–21 a una presencialidad adaptada” (31 August 2020) <www.ciencia.gob.es/stfls/MICINN/Universidades/Ficheros/Recomendaciones_del_Ministerio_de_Universidades_para_adaptar_curso.pdf> (last accessed 25 September 2020).

13 Spanish Ministry of Health, “Documento técnico sobre manejo en atención primaria y domiciliaria del COVID-19” (18 June 2020) <www.mscbs.gob.es/profesionales/saludPublica/ccayes/alertasActual/nCov-China/documentos/Manejo_primaria.pdf> (last accessed 25 September 2020).

14 Spanish Ministry of Health, “Medidas excepcionales ante la posible escasez de EPI: estrategias alternativas en situación de crisis”, no longer available at the Ministry’s website.

15 Spanish Ministry of Health, “Recomendaciones para eventos y actividades multitudinarias en el contexto de nueva normalidad por COVID-19 en España” (16 September 2020) <www.mscbs.gob.es/profesionales/saludPublica/ccayes/alertasActual/nCov-China/documentos/COVID19_Recomendaciones_eventos_masivos.pdf> (last accessed 25 September 2020).

16 During the first two months of the pandemic (March–April 2020), Andalusia adopted 11 soft law instruments with public health recommendations. The Balearic Islands and Extremadura adopted 13 and 10 instruments of this kind respectively. By contrast, Madrid used soft law in only three instruments, while Murcia and Cantabria used it only twice.

17 For example in the municipality of Madrid (“Decree of 19 June 2020 on recommendations for the resumption of education services in nursery schools”) <sede.madrid.es/FrameWork/generacionPDF/boam8667_928.pdf?numeroPublicacion=8667&idSeccion=f9df32c8b19c2710VgnVCM2000001f4a900aRCRD&nombreFichero=boam8667_928&cacheKey=48&guid=65a7fb643e2c2710VgnVCM1000001d4a900aRCRD&csv=true> (last accessed 25 September 2020).

18 For concrete examples of this, supra, notes 8 to 17.

19 This is the case inter alia of the Spanish Ministry of Health’s Protocol for occupational risk prevention services against exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

20 D Sarmiento, “La autoridad del Derecho y la naturaleza del soft law” (2006) 28 Cuadernos de Derecho Público 221, 226.

21 Spanish Constitutional Court, judgments 54/1990 of 28 March (ECLI:ES:TC:1990:54) and 57/1983 of 28 June (ECLI:ES:TC:1983:57).

22 See for example Art 55 of Catalonian Decree Law 27/2020 of 13 July.

23 Such as in Catalonia. See Arts 9(b) and 40(1) of Catalonian Law 4/1997 of 20 May and the Order of the Administrative Court No 3 of Barcelona of 22 July 2020 (ECLI: ES:JCA:2020:36A).

24 See for example the Recommendations for areas with significant transmission rates: “Recomendaciones para zonas que se encuentren en fase de transmisión comunitaria significativa”, published on the website of the Spanish Ministry of Health on 9 March 2020 (no longer available online).

25 For example, the above-mentioned Interterritorial Council’s Recommendations for areas with significant transmission rates were expressly invoked by the Autonomous Community of Castile and Leon in the Order of 11 March adopting preventive measures and recommendations regarding COVID-19 (“Orden SAN/295/2020, de 11 de marzo, por la que se adoptan medidas preventivas y recomendaciones en relación con el COVID-19 para toda la población y el territorio de la Comunidad de Castilla y León”, Regional Official Journal of 12 March 2020) and by Extremadura in the Resolution of 11 March 2020 adopting preventive measures and public health recommendations concerning COVID-19 (“Resolución de 11 de marzo de 2020, del Vicepresidente Segundo y Consejero, por la que se adoptan medidas preventivas y recomendaciones de salud pública en Extremadura como consecuencia de la situación y evolución del coronavirus”, Regional Official Journal of 12 March 2020).

26 Sarmiento, supra, note 20, pp 221–66.

27 In this respect, see the judgments of the Spanish Constitutional Court 26/1986 of 19 February (ECLI:ES:TC:1986:26) and 150/1994 of 23 May (ECLI:ES:TC:1994:150).

28 For a concrete example of this, see supra, notes 23 and 24.

29 L Arroyo and JM Rodríguez de Santiago, “European and domestic soft law within Spanish administrative law” (2020) Preprints series of the Center for European Studies, Luis Ortega Álvarez and the Jean Monnet Chair of European Administrative Law in Global Perspective 2.

30 M Darnaculleta et al (eds), Estrategias del Derecho ante la incertidumbre y la globalización (Marcial Pons 2020); JE Pardo, “La apelación a la ciencia en la crisis del COVID-19” (2020) 2 Teoría y Método: Revista de Derecho Público 35.

31 L Senden, Soft Law in European Community Law (Hart Publishing 2004); E Korkea-Aho, Adjudicating New Governance: Deliberative Democracy in the EU (Routledge 2015); F Terpan, “Soft Law in the European Union. The Changing Nature of EU Law” (2015) 21 European Law Journal 68; M Hartlapp and A Hofmann, “The use of EU soft law by national courts and bureaucrats: how relation to hard law and policy maturity matter” (2020) West European Politics 1.

32 At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Spanish Government recommended the use of facemasks only for medical personnel. On 11 April 2020, the Spanish Government issued a general recommendation to all employed persons to wear facemasks at their workplaces (by means of the document “Buenas prácticas en los centros de trabajo: medidas para la prevención de contagios del COVID-19”, see supra, note 9). On 20 May 2020, the use of facemasks became obligatory for everyone above six years of age on public streets, in open air spaces, and in any indoor space for public use or that is open to the public, provided that it is not possible to maintain an interpersonal safety distance of at least two metres (Order of the Ministry of Health SND/422/2020 of 19 May). After the expiration of the state of alarm on 21 June 2020, the Autonomous Communities issued recommendations to the public to wear facemasks whenever social distancing was not possible. During the month of July, and as the rate of virus spread began to rise, all the Autonomous Communities converted the wearing of facemasks in public outdoor and indoor spaces into an obligation (so for example in Madrid through Order of the Regional Health Ministry 920/2020 of 28 July).

33 M Greenstone and V Nigam, “Does social distancing matter?” (2020) Becker-Friedman Institute for Economics Working Paper 2020/26 <ssrn.com/abstract=3561244> (last accessed 25 September 2020); JH Stock, “Data gaps and the policy response to the novel coronavirus” (2020) 3 COVID Economics.

34 See inter alia Royal Decree-law 6/2020 of 10 March (State Official Journal of 11 March 2020), Order PCM/2015/2020 of 10 March (State Official Journal of 10 March 2020), Royal Decree-law 7/2020 of 12 March (State Official Journal of 13 March 2020), and Royal Decree-law 8/2020 of 17 March (State Official Journal of 18 March 2020).

35 See for example Aragon’s Order of 16 March 2020 on measures concerning public passenger transport (Regional Official Journal of 16 March 2020); Asturias’ Resolution of 11 March 2020 on preventive measures in social centres for the elderly (Regional Official Journal of 12 March 2020); Extremadura’s Resolution of 13 March 2020 on preventive measures in educational centres (Regional Official Journal of 14 March 2020); Madrid’s Resolution of 11 March 2020 on preventive measures in centres for minors and mentally disabled people (Regional Official Journal of 12 March 2020); and Valencia’s Decree 4/2020 of 10 March suspending the celebration of the Valencian “Fallas” and other popular parties (Regional Official Journal of 11 March 2020).

36 See for example the Preamble to Royal Decree 463/2020 of 14 March declaring the state of alarm.

37 So for example, in Asturias, Resolution of 11 March 2020 on measures concerning social centres for the elderly (Regional Official Journal of 12 March 2020); in the Balearic Islands, Decree-law 7/2020 of 8 May on urgent measures in the field of education (Regional Official Journal of 9 May 2020); or, in Navarra, Order 3/2020 of 13 March on preventive measures against the COVID-19 outbreak (Regional Official Journal of 13 March 2020).

38 For Italy, see R Durante et al, “Civic capital and social distancing: evidence from Italians’ response to COVID-19” (16 April 2020) <voxeu.org/article/civic-capital-and-social-distancing> (last accessed 25 September 2020); G Briscese et al, “Compliance with COVID-19 Social-Distancing Measures in Italy: The Role of Expectations and Duration” (2020) 13092 IZA Discussion Paper Series. For the United States, see MÉ Czeisler et al, “Public Attitudes, Behaviors, and Beliefs Related to COVID-19, Stay-at-Home Orders, Nonessential Business Closures, and Public Health Guidance – United States, New York City, and Los Angeles, 5–12 May 2020” (2020) CDCP Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 751–58 <dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6924e1> (last accessed 25 September 2020); B Van Rooij et al, “Compliance with COVID-19 Mitigation Measures in the United States” (2020) 21 Amsterdam Law School Research Paper <dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3582626> (last accessed 25 September 2020).

39 See for example the news piece: F Bracero, “Miles de personas ignoran el confinamiento y salen de ocio o a segundas residencias” La Vanguardia (Barcelona, 15 March 2020) <www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20200315/474144991175/confinamiento-coronavirus-covid-19-ocio-sierra-pirineo.html> (last accessed 25 September 2020).

40 L Orea and IC Álvarez, “How effective has the Spanish lockdown been to battle COVID-19? A spatial analysis of the coronavirus propagation across provinces” (2020) FEDEA Working Paper 2020/03 <documentos.fedea.net/pubs/dt/2020/dt2020-03.pdf> (last accessed 25 September 2020).

41 See for example the news piece: C de Quiroga, “Los vecinos del sur de Madrid ignoran el confinamiento voluntario: ‘La gente se salta la cuarentena’” ABC (Madrid, 23 August 2020) <www.abc.es/espana/madrid/abci-vecinos-madrid-ignoran-confinamiento-voluntario-gente-salta-cuarentena-202008230009_noticia.html?ref=https:%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F> (last accessed 25 September 2020).

42 As reported by I Ugarte, “Madrid’s new measures to control the expansion of the coronavirus, one by one” El País (5 September 2020) <elpais.com/espana/madrid/2020-09-04/las-nuevas-medidas-de-madrid-para-controlar-la-expansion-del-coronavirus.html> (last accessed 25 September 2020).

43 See for example the news piece: LB Garcia, “España supera el millón de multas por violar las medidas del estado de alarma” published in La Vanguardia (Barcelona, 20 May 2020) <www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20200520/481300555336/millon-sanciones-violar-medidas-estado-de-alarma-espana.html> (last accessed 25 September 2020).

44 In Spain, social courts are ordinary courts dealing with claims made related to labour law, in both individual and collective disputes, as well as social security claims or claims against the state when it bears liability under employment legislation.

45 Social Court No 1 of Avila, Order of 26 March 2020 (ECLI:ES:JSO:2020:11A); Social Court No 10 of Valencia, Order of 26 March 2020 (ECLI: ES:JSO:2020:47A); Social Court No 4 of Castellón, Order of 27 March 2020 (ECLI:ES:JSO:2020:9A); Social Court No 1 of Guadalajara, Order of 27 March 2020 (ECLI:ES:JSO:2020:5A); Social Court No 1 of Palencia, Order of 27 March 2020 (ECLI: ES:JSO:2020:14A); Social Court No 1 of León, Order of 27 March 2020 (ECLI: ES:JSO:2020:10A); Social Court No 5 of Valladolid, Order of 27 March 2020 (ECLI: ES:JSO:2020:25A); Social Court No 2 of Albacete, Order of 30 March 2020 (ECLI:ES:JSO:2020:4A).

46 High Court of Justice of the Basque Country (Social Chamber), Order of 23 April 2020 (ECLI: ES:TSJPV:2020:11A); Social Court No 1 of Soria, Order of 8 April 2020 (ECLI:ES:JSO:2020:37A).

47 High Court of Justice of Catalonia (Social Chamber), Order of 8 April 2020 (ECLI:ES:TSJCAT:2020:149A).

48 Social Court No 41 of Madrid, Order of 19 March 2020 (ECLI: ES:JSO:2020:3A).

49 High Court of Justice of the Basque Country (Social Chamber), Order of 24 April 2020 (ECLI: ES:TSJPV:2020:13A).

50 High Court of Justice of Madrid (Social Chamber), Order of 1 April 2020 (ECLI: ES:TSJM:2020:100A); High Court of Justice of Catalonia (Social Chamber), Order of 8 April 2020 (ECLI:ES:TSJCAT:2020:149A); High Court of Justice of the Basque Country (Social Chamber), Order of 24 April 2020 (ECLI: ES:TSJPV:2020:13A).

51 Social Court No 8 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Order of 23 March 2020 (ECLI:ES:JSO:2020:2A).

52 Spanish Supreme Court (Administrative Chamber), Order of 25 March 2020 (ECLI: ES:TS:2020:2418A).

53 Spanish Supreme Court (Administrative Chamber), Order of 20 April 2020 (ECLI: ES:TS:2020:2446A).

54 Preferential in the sense that the case is expedited: it is conducted and decided without waiting for the turn that would correspond to the case’s date of filing.

55 Social Court of Eibar, judgments of 28 April 2020 (ECLI: ES:JSO:2020:1847 and ECLI: ES:JSO:2020:1848); Social Court No 2 of San Sebastian, judgment of 24 April 2020 (ECLI: ES:JSO:2020:1651); Social Court No 2 of San Sebastian, judgment of 8 May 2020 (ECLI:ES:JSO:2020:1832).

56 High Court of the Basque Country (Social Chamber), judgment of 1 July 2020 (ECLI: ES:TSJPV:2020:347).

57 Social Court of Teruel, judgment of 3 June 2020 (ECLI:ES:JSO:2020:1544).

58 High Court of Justice of the Basque Country (Social Chamber), judgments of 3 June 2020 (ECLI: ES:TSJPV:2020:323 and ECLI:ES:TSJPV:2020:324).

59 ibid.

60 Arroyo and Rodríguez de Santiago, supra, note 29.