EUNOMÍA. Revista en Cultura de la Legalidad
Eunomía. Revista en Cultura de la Legalidad (Journal on Lawfulness) is a six-monthly interdisciplinary academic publication with international outreach that is disseminated electronically. It promotes a substantive theme that embraces a variety of social science and humanity disciplines, including legal, political, sociological and philosophical fields. Its topics address the legitimacy of law and obeying it, with special attention paid to developing the rule of law and consolidating democracy. The journal was awarded the FECYT seal of quality, in which is ranked in quartile 1 in Law, and is included in catalogues and databases such as SCOPUS, DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), ERIH PLUS (European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences), REDIB (Red Iberoamericana de Innovación y Conocimiento Científico—Ibero-American Network of Innovation and Scientific Knowledge), ISOC (social sciences and humanities database produced by the CSIC—Higher Council of Scientific Research), Latindex, Dialnet, MIAR, Ulrich’s Directory and RESH (Revistas Españolas de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades—Spanish Journals on Social Sciences and Humanities). It is also ranked Q3 in the area of Law and Gender Studies and Q4 in Public Administration and Social Sciences in Scimago. In terms of dissemination, the Journal reached almost 300,000 full-text downloads in the last three years (2020, 2021 and 2022). The submission process is permanently opened. 15 July 2025 is the deadline for submitting original articles opting to be published in issue No. 29 (November 2025– April 2026).
Eunomía. Revista en Cultura de la Legalidad is a duly registered journal, with EISSN 2253-6655. The articles published in Eunomía are –unless indicated otherwise– under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Spain license. You can copy, distribute and communicate them publicly as long as you cite their author and the journal and institution that publishes them and do not make derivative works with them. The full license can be consulted at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/es/deed.es
Copyright (c) 2025 EUNOMÍA. Revista en Cultura de la Legalidad http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/es/deed.es
Without practice, a critical theory of human rights is of little and little use to anyone
This paper attempts to justify the centrality of the socio-material dimension of human rights, their relational practices and the set of actions that make them at each moment. They mark their content. Theories, what is said about human rights, the institutions that normatively objectify them and judicial sentences are a complement, always necessary, but insufficient. There are three blocks with which we attempt to demonstrate the centrality of the praxis of human rights and some ways to consolidate it: (a) highlighting the need to make visible and confront social and systemic inequalities, together with the power relations that sustain and consolidate them; (b) assuming that the individual and collective struggle for rights and their relational processes and practical actions are the origin and foundation of their recognition and development; and c) finally, based on the contributions of the German and Costa Rican thinker, Franz Hinkelammert, a difference is made between an ethics, with its rationality, functional to institutions and human productions, and another rationality with its ethics functional to the human being and to Nature, denominated «humanism of praxis».
Reticular and Pyramidal Approaches. Sovereignty and (de)Globalisation
This article presents a theoretical exploration of contemporary forms of state and extra-state sovereignty concerning normative phenomena during globalisation and de-globalisation. The research focuses on the network paradigm and the pyramid model, respectively, examining their ability to represent normative evolution and new methods of exercising power. It argues that the former, characterised by polycentrism and decentralisation of power, proves more effective in contexts of high global interdependence, while the latter, with its hierarchical and centralised structure, better illustrates de-globalised environments where nationalism and state monocentrism are resurging. This work concludes that both models are contextually pertinent, and their interplay can provide a more comprehensive understanding of today’s complex world, underscoring the need for universal legislation and jurisdiction to genuinely ensure peace and fundamental rights.
Self-reference pervades international law. Treaty-based regimes –the most robust forms of international authority– typically coexist, exhibiting patterns of legal pluralism. As self-referential constructs, special regimes operate as open subsystems of international law that manage the incorporation of other international rules and decisions. Their relative autonomy embodies the logic of intergovernmental functionalism. In the absence of general organs or procedures for their integration, this situation enables equally valid –yet potentially divergent– international legal perspectives. Despite harmonizing interpretations (i.e., so-called systemic integration) by treaty bodies, achieving a measure of consistency, or effectively balancing global public goods and values, remains a significant collective challenge. This is further illustrated by regulatory competition and arbitrage arising from treaty forms, underscoring the difficulties that the absence of general procedural integration poses for the modern rule of law.
The uses of referral Clauses in Positive Law
In a legal system, it is common to find provisions that refer to other normative bodies. These references are far from being univocal, as they are not limited to establishing a supplementary regime to facilitate the integration of the law in specific cases. This article aims to analyze the uses of a referral clause in the legislation and, additionally, to evaluate the theoretical-dogmatic problems it creates in determining the content of current law. The methodology applied is rational reconstruction and a critical review of the referral technique as a model for regulating conduct. The text proposes a taxonomy of these norms and examines their implications in identifying the law.
Performing Arts, Public Policies, and Social Representations. Theater as a Tool for Building Civic Culture
At the subnational level, various public administrations have adopted a civic culture approach as a management tool to encourage desirable behaviors and discourage those that generate collective problems. This study asks: how do social representations around theater influence the construction of civic culture in Medellín? The objective is to identify these representations and analyze the role of theater as a public policy resource in the San Ignacio District. A qualitative-ethnographic design was employed, combining participant observation in local theaters and semi-structured interviews with spectators aged 25 to 35, complemented with indicators from the Civic Culture and Citizen Perception Surveys. The findings show that theater attendance fosters values such as diversity, respect, and empathy, which reinforce social norms and coexistence. Thus, theater emerges as a public policy tool with the capacity to promote prosocial behaviors and contribute to the consolidation of civic culture.
An analysis of the validity of the ‘broken promises of democracy’ by Norberto Bobbio
This article aims for the purpose of analyze and demonstrate the currency of two of the six broken promises of democracy proposed by the philosopher Norberto Bobbio, namely, the renewed vigour of particular interests and the elimination of invisible power. In regard of the first promise, we will show its currency at the theoretical level, through the idea of the micropolitical and the macropolitical market-place and the idea of the ‘democracy without a demos’; and at the political-practical level, through the neocorporativism and specific examples of the political partidists discipline and the representation for binding mandate. Regarding the latter, a series of distinctions of the different types of existing invisible power will be proposed, in order to fully specify the particularities of each one. Then, its validity will be demonstrated by means of concrete cases, such as the phenomenon of scandal, the existence of institutions and intelligence services, mafia groups against the State, among others.
How to achieve gender-balanced representation? A review of the gender quota legislation in multilevel Spain
With the aim of increasing the presence of women in representative bodies, in the summer of 2024, the Congress of Deputies approved a new regulation of legal quotas, which meant a change in the model. A modification of the 2007 law that will mean a greater limitation of the action of political forces when it comes to drawing up their candidacies at state and sub-state level. In this article we will analyse the history of the debate and approval of quotas in Spain. In this regard, we will focus on the new regulation, and we will try to unravel the main axes of the debate and the most relevant changes introduced by the legislator. We will also analyse the impact of the new regulation on the distribution of powers and on the effectiveness in favouring the presence of women in representative bodies.
Is it possible to grant amnesty for terrorism-related crimes? A reflection grounded in the Tsunami Democràtic case, Organic Law 1/2024 on Amnesty and the sociological concept of terrorism
The question of whether terrorism-related offenses can be subject to amnesty remains a matter of ongoing debate, particularly following the enactment of Organic Law 1/2024 on Amnesty. This law excludes terrorist acts from its benefits, if they involve serious human rights violations or breach international humanitarian law. Therefore, it remains a possibility that some acts of terrorism could be amnistied. Likewise, the investigation related to Tsunami Democràtic Case also highlights the existence of different types of terrorism. Although the case has been dismissed on procedural grounds, and the constitutionality of amnesty has been upheld by Constitutional Court Judgment 137/2025, the question remains as to whether certain actions could, in substance, be considered terrorism under criminal law—and whether such actions would be eligible for amnesty. This article seeks to address these two questions, arguing that they arise from the existence of an extremely broad and dysfunctional legal concept of terrorism.
Silenced whistleblowers. The lack of protection for external agents from an international and Spanish perspective
The standardization of reporting channels on wrongdoing in collective entities not only seeks to protect whistleblowers from retaliation, but is also an example of the regulatory tendency to promote the whistleblower as a basic instrument of crime prevention. However, many legislations exclude from their protection third parties (such as victims, witnesses, students, consumers and NGOs) who, although not linked to the organizations, may have access to relevant information and be exposed to retaliation. Through a critical review of the empirical literature, this study evaluates the appropriateness of such exclusion and its impact on the detection of wrongdoing. The findings suggest that, although they play a crucial role in the reporting of wrongdoing, their importance has been underestimated in the legal and academic arenas. This study argues that protection should be extended to these subjects to improve the effectiveness of reporting systems.
Training as a key to labor integration of foreigners. Improvements and pending issues of RD 1155/2024
The new migration law, enacted through Royal Decree 1155/2024 of November 19, places the training of foreigners at the core of its framework as a pathway to administrative regularization and as a means of entry and residence in the territory. Two key mechanisms will be analyzed in this context: socio-educational rooting and long-term stay permits for study purposes. These mechanisms highlight the increasing importance of education in granting foreign individuals an optimal rights-based status for legal integration. In this way, it will be shown how an inclusive and protective approach to the right to education may serve as a counterbalance to the restrictive approach to the right to work for foreign individuals. Finally, the potential shortcomings and ongoing challenges in the new immigration regulation will be adressed, with particular emphasis on the recognition of qualifications and the regulation of labor-related migration and its integration.
This article advances a precise conceptualization of distinguish, drawing on the leading theories of precedent that operate within the rule-based model. It therefore presupposes a precedent system that grants legal decision-makers the competence to depart from prior rulings when specific conditions obtain. Within this framework, the power to distinguish is shown not to weaken the authority of precedents; rather, it enables the correction of errors and preserves the normative predictability required by legal certainty. To develop the argument, section 2 outlines the general features of distinguishand clarifies the operations and practical outcomes it entails, while section 3 reconstructs the potential limits on its exercise, identifying the criteria that may legitimately justify a distinguish from a precedent.
The criminal procedure does not show the same efficiency in complex criminal cases as in simple ones. One of the factors that may explain this low efficiency is the lack of models and tools suitable for processing massive data. To take advantage of the availability of information in the digital era, it is necessary for criminal justice systems to complement the traditional hermeneutic model and investigation methodology with contributions from other sciences.
Information manipulation and foreign interference (FIMI) has evolved as a strategic tool of power in the current geopolitical context. While the tools of information disorder within FIMI have been extensively studied, this article introduces Information Suppression (IS) as a crucial concept within these operations. Unlike disinformation, which intentionally introduces misleading content, IS focuses on eliminating, concealing, or delegitimizing critical information and its sources through tactics leading to censorship and self-censorship applied on a global scale. This article develops an operational definition of IS, conceptually distinguishing it these concepts and exploring its role within FIMI. It concludes that IS not only complements disinformation but also operates as an autonomous strategy with implications for democratic rights and freedoms in a technologically globalized environment.
foreign information manipulation and interference
Between decision and deliberation. Political paradox in democratic theory
Access to the judiciary. Backward selection
In Spain, the system of competitive examinations for the selection and training of judges, which was introduced in the early 1860s, is still in force. It involves a programmed of several hundred topics covering fundamental legal subjects, reflecting a way of understanding the law that is alien to the current legal system of a constitutional state. Preparation for the admission tests consists of memorizing the syllabus, which is essentially made up of notions of positive law, from which the epistemology of factual judgement is completely absent. The exam consists of the mechanical recitation of certain topics. Those who are selected take a course at the "Judicial School", but this is based on the idea that the training should be practical, because the theory has already been acquired. The result is a clear legal and cultural deficit that can only be overcome by voluntary personal study efforts to compensate for it.
The contested reform for the extension and strengthening of the judicial and prosecutorial careers
The article analyses the access systems for the judicial and prosecutorial careers regulated in the Draft Organic Law amending Organic Law 6/1985, of 1 July, on the Judiciary, and Law 50/1981, of 30 December, regulating the Organic Statute of the Public Prosecutor's Office, for the extension and strengthening of the judicial and prosecutorial careers. The article focuses on the purposes that justify the reform, concluding that the objectives pursued are not met.
La dialéctica de la utopía y los límites de la justicia. Respuestas a los comentarios de Francisco Martínez Mesa y Delia Budeanu
María José Villaverde Rico, Rousseau visto por sus contemporáneos: odio e idolatría
In Rousseau visto por sus contemporáneos, professor María José Villaverde delves into the life and works of Rousseau and his relationship with the movement of the Enlightenment, as well as with its adversaries, the Counter-Enlightenment. These relations, plagued with personal and ideological disputes with those that were, at first, his friends and later on, his enemies (Diderot, Voltaire, D'Holbach, Hume, etc.), help illustrate the life differences that, in turn, translated into even larger divergences in their conceptions of the world and their theoretical propositions. Thus, we see that Rousseau distanced himself from his Enlightenment colleagues due to their excessive cult of reason, their appreciation of wealth, power and social artifice, their religious incredulity and their alienation from the natural world. In contrast, Rousseau argued for the value of sentiments, the love of nature and the rejection of social artifices and hypocrisy and the search for solitude, intimacy, transparency and compassion.
La ciencia del derecho como problema. Notas sobre «La condición multiparadigmática del derecho», de Nicolás Salvi
This critical review discusses the book La condición multiparadigmática del derecho by Nicolás Salvi, a work that rethinks the scientific status of law through a Kuhnian lens within legal epistemology. Challenging the illusion of a single rationality, Salvi depicts the legal field as structurally conflictive, shaped by three competing paradigms: the dogmatic-analytical, the empirical-realist, and the interpretive-hermeneutic. The review highlights the clarity and pedagogical strength of the book, while also pointing to a key issue left open: the need to further address the rationality of theoretical change under conditions of incommensurability. Rather than closing debate, the book reactivates fundamental questions about the scientificity of law and the institutional conditions of its production, while subtly suggesting–though not explicitly theorizing–a political imagination of legal knowledge as a form of engagement with the present.
This article examines intergenerational environmental justice in light of children’s emergence as leading actors in climate litigation. It surveys theoretical critiques that move beyond the traditional linear and paternalistic perspective, incorporating insights from queer theory and decolonial approaches. The notion of «generation» is also revisited through sociological and anthropological lenses that highlight the coexistence of multiple cohorts in the present, while the climate crisis is shown to demand an immediate allocation of responsibilities, rather than the mere safeguarding of a hypothetical future. The article ultimately advances a post-paternalist framework that recognises the agency of children and weaves together critical temporalities with the urgency and structural inequalities that define today’s ecological landscape.
Public employment has an obvious impact on two aspects of vital relevance for any country. On the one hand, it is of significant importance as part of the jobs occupied by the active population and, therefore, it is decisive in the employment levels of the labour market as a whole, and on the other hand, the quality of the human resources of the Public Administrations is directly associated with the possibility of these to provide the services that they undertake to provide to society and their ability to guarantee the rights of the public administrations. of the citizens. The economic crisis of 2008 had a significant impact on the reduction of staff that has led to an unsustainable situation that has only begun to be arranged in the last four years, although still insufficient for the needs, especially of the General State Administration and specific sectors such as health and education.
Beyond the sovereign. Practices, margins, and public affairs in Bonnie Honig's democratic theory
Bonnie Honig’s work constitutes a critical rereading of contemporary democratic theory from the perspective of an agonal politics. Her proposal displaces the sovereign and exceptionalist paradigm to situate democracy as an immanent practice of responding to crisis without suspending the juridical order. Drawing on a reinterpretation of Hannah Arendt and a feminist theory of refusal, Honig explores the material, affective, and performative dimensions of political action. Through figures from classical tragedy, public objects, and affects, she reclaims conflict, disobedience, and imagination as instituting forces. Thus, her thought redefines democracy as a continuous process of interruption, resistance, and institutional reinvention.
Democracy, feminism and language. A conversation with Bonnie Honig
Enthymematic Arguments and Discriminatory Decisions
This article examines the importance of enthymematic arguments in legal argumentation and their relevance in the motivation of judicial sentences. It argued that enthymemes can introduce gender stereotypes into judicial reasoning and that their proper reconstruction is crucial to eliminate these beliefs and promote equality. The analysis of court cases shows how implicit premises can perpetuate gender stereotypes. In addition, it explores how enthymemes can rely on maxims of experience that reinforce gender stereotypes in the assessment of evidence and the justification of judgments. The paper has three sections. The first part presents the definition and the method for detecting enthymemes. Then, it shows the presence of gender stereotypes in some court rulings. Finally, it explores the role of maxims of experience in the justification of judicial decisions and their relationship with gender equality.
Copyright (c) 2025 EUNOMÍA. Revista en Cultura de la Legalidad
Political participation of the Roma minority in Spain. Readjustment of legal mechanisms with a minority perspective
This article addresses how the political participation of its main ethnic minority, the roma population, has been managed in Spain. To this end, it begins with some notes on the right to political participation, the mechanisms of direct and indirect democracy and the access to these mechanisms by the majority population at the macro level and the case of the roma minority at the micro level. Within this framework, it studies the situation of historical and structural discrimination that is behind the underrepresentation or almost null access to decision-making spaces. Finally, it proposes as alternatives to this problem the creation of positive actions and, complementarily, a readjustment of legal mechanisms with a minority perspective, among which are: constitutional and electoral law reform, the creation of ad hoc parliamentary commissions, and associationism as an alternative for political incidence.
Albert Noguera Fernández, El asalto a las fronteras del derecho. Revolución y Poder constituyente en la era de la ciudad global.
The Assault on the Borders of Law... (Trotta, 2023) is a book analyzing the ontological consubstantiality between the modern constitutional paradigm and the phenomenon of constituent power as an event of normative destruction and creation. The author argues that the transformations brought by the global economy to the form of the State have resulted in a weakening of the normative effectiveness of constitutions, and consequently, in a decline of the constituent discourse. Noguera proposes the concept of "borderism" as a new analytical framework to examine normative transformation in the current context of the deterritorialization of law.
Senderos utópicos y jurídicos. Entre la literatura, la teoría y la práctica. Comentario a Lucas E. Misseri, Derecho, justicia y utopía. Una perspectiva iusfilosófica de la literatura utópica
From a legal-philosophical perspective, Lucas E. Misseri’s book Derecho, justicia y utopía explores utopia by structuring it into three dimensions: literary utopia, theoretical utopia, and utopian practice, based on three fundamental assumptions: epistemological, axiological, and anthropological. Each of these dimensions is linked to law, highlighting the role of justice as a nexus between them. The author examines this relationship from Thomas More’s Utopia, through the classical utopias of Campanella and Harrington, the modern utopias of Callenbach and Robinson, Bloch’s concept of legal utopia, and Rawls’s realistic utopia, as well as utopian elements in certain contemporary practices, such as universal basic income. The book offers a comprehensive journey through the utopian tradition, serving as a guide to understanding utopia from a legal-philosophical perspective.