Chapter 3 deals with the Spanish Constitutional Court. In this second generation of constitutional courts there are fewer unknown factors and more instances of courts in other countries to draw inspiration from, including the Italian Constitutional Court. All this contributed to the establishment and consolidation of constitutional justice. In the period from 1980 to the early 1990s, the Spanish Court dealt with four main issues, concerning the normative value of the constitutional provisions, the preconstitutional legislation, fundamental rights, and the territorial organization of the state. From the very beginning, the constitutional court upheld the normative value of all the provisions of the Constitution, and played an important role in determining whether the preconstitutional laws were in conflict with the provisions of the Constitution laying down fundamental rights and freedoms. Moreover, it succeeded in setting up an effective system of protection of fundamental rights, as well as ensuring a rational functioning of the State of Autonomies. The territorial question represented one of the most complex issues to be addressed, and the outcome of the transition to democracy was largely dependent on this matter.

The chapter addresses the role and content of Spanish constitutional identity. It first considers the stance of the Spanish Constitutional Court. In this regard, Spain joins the list of EU Member States whose constitutional courts do not accept the principle of primacy’s effectiveness in EU law vis-à-vis the Constitution. In order to contain the unlimited scope of that principle, the Constitutional Court has come up with an original and controversial distinction between the primacy of EU law and the supremacy of the Constitution. It also acknowledges that there is a core of the Constitution – its constitutional identity – that falls outside the scope of primacy. Its content lies in the respect for state sovereignty, for basic constitutional structures, and for the system of core values and principles in the Constitution, where fundamental rights acquire their own substantive nature. The chapter also examines the role of constitutional identity in the context of the Catalan secessionist movement. It considers that ensuring the state’s territorial integrity is an indispensable part of constitutional identity, whilst providing an obligation incumbent on the EU under Art. 4(2) TEU.