Organic law (Spain)

An Organic Law (Spanish: Ley Orgánica) in Spanish law under the present Spanish Constitution of 1978 must be passed by an absolute majority of the Congress of Deputies (not merely a majority of those voting). The Spanish Constitution specifies that some areas of law should be regulated by this procedure, such as the Laws of Development of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms contained in the first section of Chapter Two of Title I of the Constitution, which was the basis for the Statutes of Autonomy of the various autonomous communities of Spain. Prior to the 1978 constitution this concept had no precedent in Spain, but was inspired by a similar concept in the current French Constitution of 1958, which established the French Fifth Republic.

Juridically, organic laws are at the same level as ordinary laws. The difference between the two is in the more restrictive process for creating organic laws and in the matters that they regulate.

Article 81.1 of the Spanish Constitution says: "Organic laws are those related to the development of fundamental rights and public liberties, those that approve Statutes of Autonomy and the general electoral regime, and others foreseen in the Constitution."

In compliance with this, Organic Laws include the following:

The Constitution, in Article 81.2, says: "The approval, modification or derogation of organic laws requires an absolute majority of the Congress, in a final vote over the entire project." That is to say, an organic law is presented as a project (by the government) or as a proposition of law (by the Cortes Generales) and must follow the same parliamentary procedures as an ordinary law. As the Constitution indicates, the principal difference in the process is that the Congress of Deputies must make a final vote, at the end of the entire process, where the law must obtain an absolute majority to be approved; for ordinary laws, this final vote is not required.

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