La doctrina del Tribunal Supremo sobre el alcance de la Ley 19/2013, de 9 de diciembre, de transparencia, acceso a la información pública y buen gobierno.

Abstract

In Spain, Law 19/2013, December 19th, about transparency, access to public information and good governance (LTAIBG), has adopted the Supreme Court doctrine, based on which, from the 80’s, transparency has been considered a constitutional principle for the administration to operate under, derived from the right to access records and administrative documents, based on article 105 b) of the Spanish Constitution, being the right to access information its most outstanding effect, but not the only one.

The different interpretations of which is the true meaning and scope of the articles of the Law 19/2013 LTAIBG, and particularly, the object and scope of the law and how to apply it in a practical way, as well as its limitations regarding information access rights, have originated varied lines of thinking among public institutions, Transparency Councils, and among courts of diverse hierarchy; because of all this, The Supreme Court was obliged to intervene and harmonize all these court resolutions and pleads.

For this reason it is sensible to say that nowadays in Spain the highest jurisdictional instance is creating a doctrine about transparency that is in line with those of other international and European law administration systems.