The Senate shields itself: it will process the Amnesty due to legal obligation but will reflect in writing the doubts about its constitutionality

Marisa Cruz Madrid

Madrid

Updated Monday, March 18, 2024-20:29

Tomorrow the Senate Board will admit for processing the proposed Amnesty Law that Congress sent it on the 15th and will do so out of legal obligation as established by the Magna Carta, however, as recommended by the report of the lawyers of the Chamber, in the literal text of the Table's agreement will include "the well-founded doubts that exist about the constitutionality of the norm" and will do so "to record, for the purposes of possible judicial litigation."

The report prepared by the lawyers of the Upper House, where from now on the Amnesty will be processed, insists on the convenience of the Senate shielding itself from Justice because it considers that the bill may actually be declared not in accordance with the fundamental law of the State.

The text of the jurists indicates that this is a case similar to that of the Parliament of Catalonia, in which the lawyers warned of the violation of resolutions of the Constitutional Court of certain initiatives that the Board decided to submit to the Plenary.

The report even proposes a drafting model of the agreement to be adopted by the Board: "Admit to processing, without prejudice to the doubts about its constitutionality raised by the General Secretariat of the Chamber and the possible violation of the right recognized in the article 23 of the Constitution, (...)".

The option of including a document annexed to the Board's agreement explaining in more detail all the "violations" incurred by the bill according to the General Secretariat of the Senate is also proposed.

The lawyers also explain that it would be possible for the Board to carry out an analysis on whether a bill of an organic nature is possible, such as Amnesty, "on matters that are not strictly provided for in the Constitution, but that assign that character to themselves." ".

In this sense, the report recalls that the reservation of organic law "is limited to the matters to which the Constitution expressly reserves this character, which constitute a closed relationship, and among which amnesty is obviously not found."

For all these reasons, the legal services of the Upper House point out that "the senate is obliged to participate in a procedure that is formally legislative, finding itself forced to admit for processing an initiative that everything seems to indicate is unconstitutional."

Regarding the procedure that the processing of the norm will follow in the Senate, the lawyers understand that, since Congress, through the extra extension granted to the Justice Commission to prepare a new opinion on the law after being the first overthrown by The Plenary has annulled the declaration of urgency that it made at the time.

However, since the Senate proceeded to reform its Regulations on November 14, it is empowered to disassociate itself in the case of legislative proposals from the urgency adopted in Congress.

This reform was the subject of an unconstitutionality appeal but the TC has not yet ruled on the matter.