RESEARCH PROGRAMMES

The Cádiz Parliament and the Constitution of Cádiz. 200 years

On 7 January 2008, Professor José Antonio Escudero and the Director of the Rafael del Pino Foundation signed an agreement to carry out a research project entitled The Cádiz Parliament and the Constitution of Cádiz. 200 years.

The aim of the research is to produce a rigorous, detailed and up-to-date study of the 1812 Spanish Constitution, with an international scope, to mark its bicentenary. With regard to South America, the research will have the added value of clarifying the extent to which the Constitution of Cádiz inspired the ideologists of the proindependence movements at a time when various South American countries are going to be celebrating two hundred years of independence and their transformation into sovereign nations.

The agreement also covers the preparation of a book which will be published in 2012, coinciding with the date of the bicentenary. The idea is for it to be a book with an international profile, with contributions from Spanish researchers but also from European and American researchers. It will address the historical background - the crisis of the ancien régime and its parliament, and give an analysis of the Cádiz Parliament in its ideological and social context, its general characteristics, its content and, lastly, the influence of the 1812 Constitution on Europe and Spanish America.