Summary
The mayor of the town of Etxarri Aranatz, in Navarre … has been sentenced by the Pamplona superior court to six years of disqualification for public office and to a fine of 100,000 pesetas for the crime of disobeying higher authority. [He] refused, in accordance with the unanimous vote of the town council, to uphold two court rulings that abrogated municipal decisions opposing cooperation with the Army in … posting the lists of the town's eligible recruits. [He] is the first mayor to be sentenced in Spain for refusing to cooperate in recruiting soldiers.
El País, Madrid, 5 May 1993Alarmed that nearly half of all young men in Spain who are eligible for the draft claim to be conscientious objectors, the government has come up with a [new] policy … When on duty, [soldiers] now have a right to disobey orders that violate the law … If they feel they have been abused, they can circumvent military authorities and complain directly to Spain's ombudsman … For Spain's top brass, these are hardly changes designed to create a tough citizens army. But if trends continue, they also know they may soon be without soldiers.
New York Times, 6 August 1994Political life in seventeenth-century Castile was distinctly unsettled: Allegiance, hierarchy, authority, and administration were subject to interpretation and contingency resulting from, on the one hand, a series of deep political and financial crises and, on the other hand, a system of rule based on the defense of certain fundamental rights.
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- The Limits of Royal AuthorityResistance and Obedience in Seventeenth-Century Castile, pp. 173 - 177Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999