Introduction

With its 169 articles, the 1978 Constitution represents one of the longest in Spanish constitutional history, taking longer to draw up than any previous constitution. It was drafted and approved by both Houses of Parliament (Cortes Generates), the Lower House or Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) (4.3.1) and the Upper House or Senate (Senado) (4.3.2). During the sixteen months of its gestation, it passed through an unprecedented number of committees and, in the course of its approval, over one thousand amendments were tabled; no previous constitution had been subjected to such searching scrutiny.

The 1978 Constitution started life in the Committee of Constitutional Affairs and Public Liberties (Comisión de Asuntos Constitucionales y Libertades Públicas) consisting of thirty-six members of the Congress drawn from the major parties represented in Parliament in proportion to their strength in the Lower House. The Committee appointed a seven-man working party with a similar composition, whose task was to draw up the original draft of the Constitution. The draft was passed to the Constitutional Committee of the Congress (Comisión Constitucional del Congreso) before being submitted for approval to the full Congress. Subsequently it was considered by the Constitutional Committee of the Senate (Comisión Constitucional del Senado) prior to being approved by the full Senate. In the final stage of the process, the draft was scrutinised by a joint committee of both Houses of Parliament before being approved in a full joint session of both Houses on 31 October 1978 (table 2.1).