The yearbook of the Faculty of Law of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) publishes its 13th edition devoted to studying the principle of equality and its real embodiment in the current Spanish code.
Equality is, first and foremost, an ideal that connects ethical aspirations with the principles of the legal code and their implementation, and which crosses the different branches of the legal system, where its meaning, initially abstract, is defined in different statements and demands. There is, therefore, no single meaning of equality nor, consequently, a single content of this principle, but it is manifested in different forms in different contexts or situations. It is in this sense that we can speak of the “challenges” of equality, such as those particular embodiments of the principle of equality demanded in the legal system in relation to citizen's specific circumstances, their interpersonal relations and their relations with the authorities.
Within this complex and varied framework where equality is deployed, some challenges particularly stand out, either because, as challenges “to” equality, the social or historic reality has continued to be for a considerable time – if not always– resistant to moral and legal demands that try to make it effective, or because, as challenges “of” equality, it is the legal institutions that are resistant to modifying rules that guarantee fairer equality between humans.
With the aim not of covering the entire field, but of illustrating some of its most controversial and relevant aspects, the Yearbook of the Faculty of Law of the UAM proposed a reflection on this dual type of challenges by holding a Conference in the Faculty of Law of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid from 12 to 14 November 2009. This event tackled the definition of the principle of equality in relation, for example, to the equality of rights in the Autonomous Regions, to the labour legislation for equality between men and women, to the criminal equalities due to gender, equality in relation to secularism and religions and, finally, in relation to inequalities in the electoral field.
The work, published by Alfonso Ruiz, from the Department of Public Law and Legal Philosophy and Andrea Macía from the Department of Private, Social and Economic Law, both of the UAM, includes the different speeches given in the context of this conference, with the presence of renowned Spanish and foreign jurists, philosophers and academics In all of them, the author's intention has not been to tackle the issue from a historic or descriptive perspective, but to dynamically present the analysis of the principle of equality, analysing its current situation and its future projections in each one of its most problematic contexts. Therefore, the work as a whole presents an interesting vision of this principle, which gives readers knowledge of the subject matter, whilst offering points of interest and suggestions for a subsequent personal reflection.
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