LA RELACIÓN DERECHOS-ESTADO AUTONÓMICO EN LA SENTENCIA SOBRE EL ESTATUTO VALENCIANO

Constitutional Court ruling 247/2007, of 12 December, dealing with the challengebrought by the government of the Autonomous Community of Aragonagainst the new art. 17 of the Statute of Autonomy of the Autonomous Community of Valencia, chooses to review the main questions arising fromthe approval of the new Statutes of Autonomy. Among the number of issuesdealt with in the ruling, this article focuses on analysing a specific one: therelationship between citizens’ rights and the territorial distribution of powersbetween the Central Government and Autonomous Communities. It is in relationto this that the article analyses the Court’s case law as it relates tothree fundamental aspects of the matter: the function of the art. 139.1 ofthe Spanish Constitution (SC) and the equality mandate that it contains; thefunction of art. 149.1.1 SC, within the Central Government’s jurisdiction, inlinking together equality and rights; and finally whether the statutes of autonomycan contain bills of rights. Of these three aspects, the one treated asmost debatable is this last one, since the Court establishes a distinction betweenrights that will actually be rights and rights that will be mere mandatesto the legislator, without establishing a clear basis on which this distinctioncan be made