FAMILY PORTRAIT

Abstract

Th e Spanish Constitution of 1812 shared common features with a group of constitutional texts in the revolutionary period 1780-1830. Th e main one was probably the assumption that a single political framework for both metropolis and overseas territories was needed. Th is constitutional architecture includes, almost by necessity, a single legislative body. Constitutions sharing this set of assumptions are defi ned in the text as imperial constitutions, in the sense that they shared the common goal of giving new life to former monarchical empires. Th e paper also stresses the forces that undermined their stability and led to their inevitable crises.