The Diffuse Control of The King

Abstract

The King’s inviolability has exempted him from all kinds of judicial control. Under that prerogative, however, the Monarch has been also exempted from other types of control (political or social), which are the result of the exercise of fundamental rights or competences by the public authorities, from which, however, no direct legal or political liabilities are stemmed. This paper aims to analyze how the Spanish constitutional system has been building legal shields against different expressions of discontent towards the Monarch —which constitute diffuse mechanisms of control— to analyze, later, whether they are justified for the protection of the function that the King has constitutionally entrusted.