Constitutional Law in the Service of Human Action: Proposals to Safeguard Entrepreneurship From the Perspective of the Austrian School of Economics

The passing of an Amnesty Law which validates the actions taken by the Catalan regional authorities following the declaration of independence on 1 October 2023, due to the annulment of judicial rulings against the political leaders who promoted these actions, leads to a derogation from the Spanish Constitution of 1978 through delegated legislative power, affecting key elements of the Constitution such as equal treatment under the law and the independence of the judiciary, supplanting the constitutional power of the Spanish people and constituting a violation of the values set out in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, namely the rule of law and the separation of powers. Furthermore, public intervention in the economy results in a breach of the free movement of capital and services established in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and an erosion of property rights. The aim of this paper is to analyse, from the perspective of human action within the Austrian school of economic thought, whether constitutional law is effective in guaranteeing the individual’s natural rights.