The Legislative Procedure in the 21st Century: Problematic and Challenges with Special Reference to the Senate

Abstract

The legislative power is, according to article 66.2 of the Constitution, the first and most important of the functions of the Cortes Generales and, in the legal-historical context, the most characteristic of the Parliaments. The exercise of the function of drafting and approving the laws is based on the legislative procedure, which is the succession of legal acts whose purpose is the approval of a law. The relevance of the legislative procedure derives from the aforementioned pre-eminence of the legislative function, which also implies the need for its regulation to be complete and sufficient and that its exercise be carried out in a fully rigorous manner, since it emerges as a guarantee fundamental for the Rule of Law and for citizens, insofar as it is the formal apparatus to ensure the correct formation of the will of the representatives of the Nation. Forty years after the approval of the Constitution, the legislative procedure has fulfilled its purpose satisfactorily, but to meet the demands of society, it must be more transparent and more participatory, without losing the representative essence of contemporary democracies.