Law I / The State, Legality and Legitimacy
Practice question · Match the pairs

Match each requirement of the Estado de Derecho to what it constrains.

  • Rule of statute
  • Separation of powers
  • Legality of the administration
  • Guaranteed fundamental rights
  • The content of public power: it must act through general norms
  • The everyday action of officials, and its reviewability
  • The limits of what any majority may decide
  • The organisation of public power: making and applying are kept apart
Hints
  1. Each requirement bites on a different part of the machinery.
  2. Only one of the four constrains what a majority is allowed to do at all.
Show the answer
  • Rule of statute The content of public power: it must act through general norms
  • Separation of powers The organisation of public power: making and applying are kept apart
  • Legality of the administration The everyday action of officials, and its reviewability
  • Guaranteed fundamental rights The limits of what any majority may decide
Why

The fourth is the one that changes the character of the others. Without it, the first three constrain how power is exercised and leave its reach untouched; with it, there are decisions no correctly constituted majority may make, which is the step from the state of law to the constitutional state of law.

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