Legislation

(Document Status on December 29, 1978)

Article 3 (Official Language)

(1) Castilian is the official Spanish language of the state. All Spaniards have the duty to know it and the right to use it.

(2) The other languages of Spain will also be official in the respective autonomous communities, in accordance with their Statutes.

(3) The richness of the linguistic modalities of Spain is a cultural patrimony, which will be the object of special respect and protection

Article 20 (Specific Freedoms, Restrictions)

(1) The following rights are recognized and protected:

a) To express and disseminate thoughts freely through words, writing, or any other means of reproduction.

b) Literary, artistic, scientific, and technical production, and creation.

c) Academic freedom.

d) To communicate or receive freely truthful information through any means of dissemination. The law shall regulate the right to the protection of the clause on conscience and professional secrecy in the exercise of these freedoms.

(2) The exercise of these rights cannot be restricted through any type of prior censorship.

(3) The law shall regulate the organization and parliamentary control of the means of social communication owned by the State or any public entity and shall guarantee access to those means by significant social and political groups, respecting the pluralism of society and the various languages of Spain.

(4) These liberties find their limitation in the respect for the rights recognized in this Title, in the precepts of the laws which develop it and, especially, in the right to honor, privacy, personal identity, and protection of youth and childhood.

(5) The seizure of publications, recordings, or other means of information may only be determined by a judicial resolution.

Article 148 (Competences)

(1) The Autonomous Communities may assume competences in the following:

(17) promotion of culture, research, and, when applicable, the teaching of the language of the Autonomous Community;

Note: The complete text of the Constitution and further information on the constitutional background of Spain are provided by the International Constitutional Law Project at the University of Wuerzburg.

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