SUCCESSION TO SPANISH TITLES:
The rights of Males over females determined by the Constitutional Tribunal, 9 July 1997.

On July 9, 1997, the Spanish Constitutional Tribunal published an important decision. After much debate it decided by a majority of 12 to 3 that the Spanish legal provisions giving equality to the sexes did not affect titles of nobility. Since 1987, when the Supreme Court had ruled that the preference for males over females constituted an infringement of article XIV of the Constitution, the succession of noble titles has been in disorder. The eldest daughters of some deceased grandees of title nobles of the Kingdom challenged the succession of their younger brothers and, in several cases, obtained the reversion of these titles in their favor.

The case that led to the decision of the Tribunal had been brought by Dona Pilar de la Cierva y Osorio de Moscoso, against her brother Don Rafael de la Cierva y Osorio de Moscoso, over the succession to the title of Conde de Cardona with Grandeeship. This title had been created 1 March 1712 by the Archduke Charles as titular King, for Don José Folch de Cardona y Eril, Lieutenant-General of the Order of Montesa, recognized by Philip V along with the other titles and awards given by the Archduke-Pretender in 1713, and rehabilitated in 1911 for Doña María Isabel Osorio de Moscoso y López. On the death of their mother, Don Rafael had petitioned successfully for the title and his succession had been confirmed in the Boletín Oficial of 14 October 1989. This succession was then challenged by Doña Pilar.

Like all Spanish titles the succession was "mixed", males having preference to females, but passing to a female in the even of the failure of male heirs. In making this determination the Tribunal declared that noble titles symbolized an institution "that was only relevant socially and juridically in the past". Their reasoning was based on the fact that possession of noble titles of itself had no juridical standing, but as "nomen honoris" were related to the right to a name. The possession of a title is purely symbolic, and any difference between someone titled and someone who is not, is unrecognized in Spanish law. The judgment states:

" Los titulos de nobleza nos sitúan ante un ámbito de relaciones que se circumscribe a aquellas personas que forman parte del linaje del beneficario de la merced y, por tanto, no poseen una proyección general y definitoria de un estatus…..la regla de preferencia del varón hoy es un elemento diferencial que no tiene cabida en nuestro ordenamniento respecto a aquellas situaciones que poseen un proyeción general. De manera que sólo puede entrañar, al igual que los propios titulos nobiliarios, una referencia o una llamada a la historia, desprovista de todo contenido material….. Dicho de otro modo – abundo la sentencia – la diferencia por razón de sexo sólo posee hoy un valor meramente simbólico, dado que el fundamento de la diferenciación ya no se halla vigente en nuestro ordenamiento. Mientras que, por el contrario, los valores sociales y juridicos contenidos en la Constitución necessariamente han de pryectar sus efectos si estuviésemos ante una diferencia legal que tuviera un contenido material….. no siendo discriminatario y, por tanto, inconstitucional el título de nobleza, tampoco puede serlo dicha preferencia [del hombre sobre la mujer], salvo incurrir en una contradicción. …. Admitida la constitucionalidad de los títulos nobiliarios por su naturaleza meramente honorifica y la finalidad de mantener vivo el recuerdo histórico y la finalidad de mantener vivo el recuerdo histórico al que se debe su otorgamiento, no cabe entender que un determinado elemento de dicha institución – el régimen de su transmisión "mortis causa" – haya de apartarse de las determinaciones establecidas en la Real carta de concesión. La voluntad regia que ésta expresa no puede alterarse sin desvirtuar el origen y la naturaleza histórica de la institución."

As yet no provisions have been made concerning those titles which were inherited by females on the basis of the Supreme Court decision of 1987 but which should have passed to the eldest male heir.

TO LIST OF GRANDEES OF SPAIN

To Essay on Spanish Nobiliary Regulations