L’accés a la informació pública en la legislació espanyola de transparència: crònica d’un canvi de paradigma

Mir Puigpelat, Oriol

L’accés a la informació pública en la legislació espanyola de transparència: crònica d’un canvi de paradigma

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Citation

Mir Puigpelat O. L’accés a la informació pública en la legislació espanyola de transparència: crònica d’un canvi de paradigma. Revista catalana de dret públic. 2017;(55): 48-66.

Abstract

This paper describes the historical development and basic characteristics of current Spanish legislation on the right of access to public information and the true scope of this right in its practical application. It uses the example of the legal principle established during its first two years of operation by the Comissió de Garantia del Dret d’Accés a la Informació Pública (Committee for Guaranteeing the Right of Access to Public Information, GAIP), the independent authority that oversees compliance with the right of access in Catalonia. In recent years, one can see in Spain how there has been a real paradigm shift on this matter from a purely nominal law with little practical application to a thorough and effective right of access with enormous future potential, equal to or broader than that recognised in other laws that were previously viewed with envy. It will also be seen how the current blast wave from the general right of access is affecting institutions dating from much earlier, with a supposedly different nature, such as the traditional right of access of interested parties to their files. And, how its current legal configuration paradoxically gives it much greater scope than if it were to be recognised as a fundamental right under the terms established by the European Court of Human Rights.