Visions of Cádiz: The Constitution of 1812 in historical and constitutional thought

• Pages: 59-88
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-4337(2010)0000053006
• Published date: 31 December 2010
• Date: 31 December 2010
• Author: M.C. Mirow

VISIONS OF CA

´DIZ: THE

CONSTITUTION OF 1812

IN HISTORICAL AND

CONSTITUTIONAL THOUGHT

M. C. Mirow

ABSTRACT

This chapter examines ways the Spanish Constitution of 1812, also known

as the Constitution of Ca

´diz, has been viewed in historical and

constitutional thought. The document is a liberal constitution establishing

constitutional rights, a representative government, and a parliamentary

monarchy. It influenced ideas of American equality within the Spanish

Empire, and its traces are observed in the process of Latin American

independence. To these accepted views, one must add that the

Constitution was a lost moment in Latin American constitutional

development. By the immediate politicization of constitutionalism after

1812, the document marks the beginning of constitutional difficulties in

the region.

The Spanish Constitution of Ca

´diz of 1812 stands uncomfortably at the

crossroads of various worlds. The Constitution sought to perpetuate

monarchy just as monarchical absolutism and imperial structures were

Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Volume 53, 59–88

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ISSN: 1059-4337/doi:10.1108/S1059-4337(2010)0000053006

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revealing pressure factures from enlightenment political thought and

sweeping political changes around the Atlantic. It advanced notions of

popular representation and national sovereignty in the name of a king.

While establishing a perpetual confessional Roman Catholic state, the

Constitution espoused liberal ideas and institutions including representative

electoral bodies at various levels of government, restrictions on the power of

the king, rights for the criminally accused, freedom of contract, and

individual property rights. It abolished the inquisition, seigniorial struc-

tures, Indian tribute, and forced Indian labor in America and personal

services in Spain (Rodrı

´guez, 1998). It sought the creation of national codes

of law that would be applied equally to all in courts of general jurisdiction

without regard to individual status (Estrada, 2006). Thus, the Constitution

was an early and important text in the age of democratic revolutions when

absolutism was replaced with constitutionalism, when the king’s sovereignty

was replaced with the people’s sovereignty. In fact, in describing the Spanish

nation in terms of a population within geographic boundaries, the

Constitution of Ca

´diz has been viewed as the first formulation of the

nation-state (Artola, 2008).

The Constitution is neither wholly European nor wholly American. As

scholars unearthed the substantial American contribution to the drafting of

the document in Spain, they also revealed that American deputies developed

new sensitivities to constitutional thought and governmental structure that

were transferred to independence movements and early republics in former

colonies (Rodriguez 1978;Rodrı

´guez, 1998). The Constitution had an

important influence on American equality within the Spanish Empire, and

its traces are observed in the process of independence in Latin America.

Recent scholarship has emphasized the global and Atlantic aspects of the

Constitution: ‘‘one cannot explain Ca

´diz without America, nor America

without Ca

´diz,’’ writes Ivana Frasquet (Frasquet, 2008, p. 21). Another

scholar writes, ‘‘judging from the Central American experience, the Spanish

liberalism that was forged at Ca

´diz provided key ideological guidelines

for a program of modernization and independent existence’’ (Rodriguez,

1978, p. 75).

With interesting content and demonstrated influence on the history of

constitutionalism in Spain and in the world, the Constitution has been the

subject of many studies and analyses, including polemical studies by liberals

and antiliberals alike (Rodriguez, 1978). The historiography of the

Constitution in the past 50 years has been summarized well by Estrada

who sees in these works at least three ‘‘Cadices.’’ The first group of works

addressing the Constitution, antiliberal in their tone, seeks to undermine the

M. C. MIROW60