La experiencia constitucional gaditana y la Constitución portuguesa de 1822

Abstract

Very soon, the 1812 Constitution of Cádiz became an archetype, the pattern to be followed by the liberalism, not only European but also Hispano-American. Consequently, when the liberal revolution took over in Portugal, there is little wonder that the text from Cádiz was taken in careful consideration in order to draft theConstitution. However, the Portuguese Constitution of 1822 introduced new and very important concepts with respect to the Spanish one, ten years older. In order to explain these changes it has been argued that the intention of the Portuguese constituents was to produce a more liberal draft than the 1812 Spanish Constitution. The present work deals with the hypotheses that the amendments introduced by authors of the 1822 Constitution were mainly due to their sound knowledge of the day-by-day political life of the Liberal Trienium, with the political and legal problems that the application of 1812 Spanish Constitution was bringing in the daily practice.