PRINCIPLE OF EQUALITY AND ANTI-DISCRIMINATION PRINCIPLE IN THE SPANISH LEGAL SYSTEM

The Spanish Constitution of 1978 enshrines the principle of equality and the anti-discrimination principle as two basic elements of the right of people to receive equal treatment in the legal sphere and in the application of the law by public authorities and individuals. However, articles 9.2 and 14 of the Constitution regulate very synthetically both formal equality and substantive equality. Anti-discrimination law in the strictest sense has been developed both by the legislator and by jurisprudence, essentially that developed by the Constitutional Court. In this descriptive work, the normative development and the jurisprudential development of the right to equality and anti-discrimination law are described, from the constitutional provisions, and with the aim of bringing the reader closer to a legal system that has evolved exponentially over forty years, despite approaching the principle of equality with a restrictive and essentially relational vision, which makes it difficult to advance in contemporary notions such as intersectional discrimination or parity in the framework of representation.