La doctrina del Tribunal Constitucional y la jurisprudencia del Tribunal Supremo sobre la provincia
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The Spanish Constitutional Court has recognized, from the beginning, that the province has, under the Spanish Constitution, an institutional guarantee that preserves the same against legislator’s encroachments on the essential nature of its autonomy. Moreover, the Spanish Constitutional Court’s case law configures the distribution of powers in local matters as a bifrontal regime, where the state (federal) basic law carries out a specific role within the constitutional framework. At the same time, this case law establishes that the legislator will define the particular scope of the provinces’ powers. The Spanish Supreme Court takes this constitutional framework as starting point. However, the Supreme Court expands, in general, the local powers based on the European Charter of Local Self-Government and the subsidiarity principle. In addition, the Supreme Court recognizes to the province an essential power –instrumental in nature- for collaborating and cooperating with the city councils. The cooperation provincial plans regarding municipal works and services are a traditional form of cooperation that has been used by the Spanish Constitutional Court to bolster provinces’ powers.