Das spanische Verfassungsgericht: politischer Akteur wider Willen

In recent years, the Spanish Constitutional Court has become well known, in particular, the ruling on the Catalan statute in 2010 and the decisions in the context of the conflict in Catalonia from 2017 onwards. However, the special role of the Constitutional Court goes far beyond this conflict and is closely linked to the design and development of the Spanish State of Autonomous Communities. In the first part of this text, I will analyse the question of why the Constitutional Court assumed a special role in the development of the Spanish territorial model. In the second part I will examine the logic of the Constitutional Court's decisions and the extent to which they favour the central government or the Autonomous Communities.