ABSTRACT
The reintroduction of democracy in the kingdom in 1975–78 opened the door for the framing of a new, modern Constitution. The approval of the new Constitution required a comprehensive revision of most of the administrative statutes and regulations passed during the preceding political system. In Spain, the Principle of Effective Legal Protection (PELP) is not established in the domestic Constitution under such exact wording. Currently, the said principle cannot be characterised as a uniform or precisely delineated principle, but rather as the result of several sub-principles and fundamental rights that are recognised in the Constitution, in regular legislation and in case law. The number and variety of rights and sub-principles constituting the PELP and the huge number of rulings issued by the Constitutional Court does prevent the identification of ‘landmark cases’ defining or circumscribing the scope and limits of the PELP in administrative law, as there are literally hundreds of rulings.
