Diálogo entre municipios y estados: principio de fuente constitucional
States and municipalities are two actors of our constitutional federalism, both with a peculiar relationship of attachment in important decision whereas both holding, at the same time, spaces of autonomy protected by the Constitution; thus, state legislatures have power over the taxing power and the integration of municipalities, which, if misused, would certainly derail the design of power fragmentation foreseen by our founding fathers; this paper explores a body of precedents built by the Supreme Court justifying a constitutional judicial review over these political decisions, which consists of different standards of judicial scrutiny by which to evaluate not the content of what is decided, but the processes of decision making and its assumptions; thus, the model is not to have a judicial power ruling on the merits of the law resulting from their normative relationship, but preoccupied by the openness of political channels, which give rise to those decisions.
 Jueces y política: de la subordinación a la dialéctica
Las relaciones entre jueces y política pueden analizarse desde numerosos puntos de vista. Dado que no es posible agotar en este texto un campo de argumentos tan complejo, desarrollaré algunas consideraciones teniendo como punto de partida definiciones específicas de los dos términos, “jueces” y “política” que están relacionados con el tema del seminario.
Judicial Review of Legislation: A Comparative Study of the Austrian and the American Constitution
The Austrian Constitution discussed here is that of October 1, 1920, as valid on January 1, 1930; on that day the text of the Constitution was officially published by an act of the Austrian Chancellor in the Bundesgesetzblatt fiur die Republik osterreich (the official Gazette for the obligatory publications of statutes). All later amendments will not be considered because they were enacted under a semi-fascist regime and had the tendency to restrict the democratic control of the constitutionality of legislation. The Austrian Constitution of 1920-30 provided for guarantees to assure the constitutionality not only of statutes but also of ordinances. The latter were general legal rules enacted by administrative organs and not by a parliament, that is by a legislative organ. In Austria, as well as in other countries of the European continent these ordinances played a much greater role than in the United States. There were two kinds of ordinances: Ordinances based on statutes, i.e. ordinances the function of which was to execute the statutes, and ordinances which, like statutes, were enacted directly "on the basis of the constitution," that is ordinances issued in place of statutes. The significance of ordinances is due to the peculiar position which the administrative authorities occupy in the legal systems of the European continent. There they have, in their capacity as law-applying organs, the same rank as courts. The administrative act has in principle the same legal effect as a judicial decision. Besides, the administra-