LAS LEYES DE DESARROLLO BÁSICO DEL ESTATUTO DE AUTONOMÍA. EL CASO DE LA LEY DE GOBIERNOS LOCALES DE CATALUÑA

The new Catalan Statute of Autonomy contains a novelty: detailed regulationsfor local government. These regulations require the appropriate legislativeimplementation. Within this implementation of the Statute the futureact regulating Catalan local authorities is of central importance. The ultimateaim of this paper is to analyse the problems raised by describing this act asa law for basic implementation of the Statute. Such laws for basic implementationof the Statute are a special type of law which exist in some autonomousstructures, among them that of Catalonia, and now enjoy explicit statutoryrecognition. Despite having existed for so many years and being of suchimportance, it is a type of law which lacks sufficient categorical definition.The first part of the paper should be seen as a contribution to remedyingthis gap. The main issues raised by this special type of autonomous law areexamined in detail: its name, nature, concept, material component (reservedareas), formal features (joint initiative and reinforced quorum), relationshipwith other laws and the statutory limits surrounding it