"T his paper evaluates the 1808 constitution and the institutionalisation of the usurper government in Spain on the basis of already known material. It aims to re-interpret this constitutional experiment as a learning experience within...
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his paper evaluates the 1808 constitution and the institutionalisation of the usurper government in Spain on the basis of already known material. It aims to re-interpret this constitutional experiment as a learning experience within the history of Spanish constitutionalism, rather than as a manifestation of Napoleonic constitutionalism. To this end, we have relativised the similarities between the 1808 Constitution and other Napoleonic constitutions and have focussed on the peculiarities in the underlying aspects of the constitution and of institutional inertia as King Joseph established his regime. This change of perspective allows a comparison between this experiment and the process by which the Cadiz constitution was drawn up, placing the 1808-1813 experience within the context of an ongoing process of constitutionalising the Spanish state in the 19th century."
