ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on all aspects of life. Faced with this and the need to contain and overcome it, governments and administrations around the world have adopted legal measures, often drastic, but usually within the constitutionally established framework for such exceptional situations.
The case of Spain is particularly interesting because, despite the government’s attempts to contain a calamitous situation at a global level, the results have been devastating from all points of view, with more deaths per million inhabitants or more infected health workers in global comparison but also with a greater number of citizens proposed for punishment than those infected.
Are these results due to the special idiosyncrasies of the Spanish people and their way of life or do they have another cause? The weakened constitutional system, even today questioned by recent separatist invectives and even some members of the government, might have suffered from the crisis in its most important aspect: the respect and guarantee of the fundamental rights recognised in the Magna Carta. This chapter critically and legally examines the issue.
