Regimen juridico de los lugares de cultoespecial referencia a los instrumentos de planeamiento y gestión urbanistica y a los mecanismos de control administrativo

Abstract

The Spanish legal system regulates religion, the belief in certain convictions and the right to manifest them, pursuant to Article 16 of the Spanish Constitution. Human beings express their beliefs by publicly participating in collective religious celebrations, in cultural traditions and in the commemoration of the feast days of each religion. For this, they need a physical space which, according to the confession in question, will have a series of specific characteristics, will be consecrated and will or will not have a sacred nature. In a confessional state with an official religion, or at least with one predominant belief, this situation does not generate conflicts. However, problems arise in recently multiconfessional societies such as in Spain, where there has been a marked increase in religious confessions that were practically nonexistent a few years ago. The need for an urban space for the external manifestation of religious beliefs entails the confluence of the fundamental right to religious freedom with urban planning, as well as the action of public authorities and the opinion of local residents, manifesting itself as a somewhat antagonistic issue and, depending on the case, unprecedented or difficult to solve. The aforementioned situation justifies this thesis by means of the analysis of the ecclesiastical and urban planning legal systems, setting out to detect any potential shortcomings or loopholes, identify their origin or simply see what can be improved, to then develop a legal reflection and provide some solutions.