The first great parliamentary debate on rights and freedoms in the Era Isabelina: The proposals of the ‘Comisión de Contestación’ of 1834

Abstract

The Crown's speech at the opening of the Cortes in July 1834 and, especially, its reply initiated the debate on the need to recognise a series of rights and freedoms for citizens. After a particularly intense debate in the Estamento de Procuradores, in which the existence of different factions within liberalism became evident, the right of petition regulated in the Spanish Royal Statute was exercised to formally request the approval of a table of rights and liberties. This was one of several attempts to amend the incomplete charter granted by Isabella II.