We explain what political law is, its relationship with other disciplines and why it is exclusive to Hispanic legal traditions.
What is political law?
Political law is one of the branches of public Law, whose interests focus on the fundamental problems of the Condition, thus encompassing both the General Theory of the State, as well as the Constitutional right. Among its objects of study are the concept of the State and its constitutive elements, the sovereignty, the functions, purposes and forms of the State, and the different forms of government.
This legal discipline studies the dynamic structure of the political organization and its relations with the society and the different forms of political activity. This means that the discipline makes use of concepts from sociology and the political science without abandoning its legal channel, in pursuit of the unification of a theory of society, one of the constitution, one of the political organization and another of the political acts themselves.
Put more simply, political law legally studies politics, understood from a holistic point of view, that is, global, in which the State and society have a place, without limiting the area of study to these only ones. instances. Seen like this, it is a legal discipline very close to Legal Sciences.
However, the expression "political right" lacks equivalents in non-Hispanic legal traditions, probably because its legal tradition began in 19th century Spain, and its name is due to a more or less free translation of the Staatsrecht (literally: "state law") German.
One of the pioneers in this field of legal knowledge was Mr. Adolfo González Posada (1860-1944), author of treatises on the subject and in charge of teaching the first class on the matter in October 1883 at the University of Oviedo, in Spain.
Finally, the discipline of political law should not be confused with the political rights that possess the citizens within the legal framework of a given State.