cockfighting

Bullfighting was banned in the autonomous Spanish region of Catalonia on 28 July this year, with the ban coming into full effect in 2012.

Now, three months to the day later, the Spanish Constitutional Court (housed in a rather Beehive-esque building) has accepted an appeal lodged by the Partido Popular (People’s Party, PP) challenging Catalonia’s ban on cultural, economic and administrative grounds. The PP is a conservative, nationalist party known for such other legislative projects as restricting immigration to Catalonia and deporting immigrants who have not learnt the Catalan language to proposed minimum standards.

If the appeal is successful, the Court may overturn the regional ban (I have written in detail on this ban here). However, the Court can take months or years to deliver a judgment.

The central constitutional provision is article 149, which provides that the State has exclusive jurisdiction over conditions governing ‘the equality of all Spanish in exercising their constitutional rights.’ This is advanced as the basis for the following three grounds of appeal: Continue reading →