Decree law

A decree law, in general, is a legal instrument with force of law, issued by the executive branch, without authorization from a congress or parliament.

This type of rule may be allowed within a legal system in certain urgent cases — such as when it is not possible to obtain proper authorization for a legislative decree or formal law — but they require validation by the legislative power, usually within in a short period. In the countries with a parliamentary monarchy this instrument is called Royal Decree Law, because the highest ranking regulatory standard issued by the executive branch in these systems is called Royal Decree, such as in Spain.

Similarly, a legal instrument issued by a de facto government is called a decree law.

Validity

In the first case, this rule remains valid until the expiration of the validation period, which starts after ten days in some legislations and up to forty-five days in others. Once subjected to legislative power, this can ratify or repeal them. In Spain, it is regulated by article 86 of the Constitution and in Argentina it is regulated by article 99 of the Constitution.

The second sense of the term (occasionally simply called law), in Argentina the term is used to designate the rules dictated by the civil-military dictatorships from 1930-1932; 1943-1945; 1955-1958; 1962-1963; 1966-1973; and 1976-1983. In Chile, it refers to the irregular legislation from the periods 1924-1925; June-October 1932 and 1973-1981. In the latter case, the Governing Junta exercised legislative powers from 1981 until the full restoration of the Constitution in 1990.

After the dictatorships, the need to maintain legal continuity conflicted with the manifest irregularity in the way these laws were issued. As a result, the Congresses arising from democratic governments that succeeded them opted for a compromise solution, granting them full validity and legal effect. In Argentina, for example, there is Decree/Law 21680 / 1956, of December 10, 1956, which creates the National Institute of Agricultural Technology. In Chile, the jurisprudence and resolutions of the Supreme Court has recognized its validity and necessity for the operation of the State.

Regulation by country

Argentina

Chile

The Civil Code, in its article 1°, provides that: “The law is a declaration of the sovereign will that, expressed in the manner prescribed by the Constitution, commands, prohibits or allows”. The Constitution sates: “Sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation. Its exercise is carried out by the people through plebiscites and periodic elections and also by the authorities established by this Constitution. No sector of the people or any individual can take responsibility for its exercise”.

Decrees with the force of law: regulatory bodies that emanate from the President of the Republic and that fall on legal matters, by virtue of a delegation of powers from Parliament, or to establish the consolidated, coordinated and systematized text of the laws.
Decree laws: generally understood as a norm with the rank of law (or on matters of law), dictated by a de facto government, in periods of constitutional abnormality, without the Legislative Branch intervening in them. In Chile, the main decree laws have been issued during the dictatorship of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo (1927-1931) and the civil-military dictatorship (1973-1980).

Spain

According to the Spanish Constitution, in article 86, these decree laws may not affect to the organization of the basic institutions of the State, to the rights, duties and freedoms of citizens (...), to the regime of the Autonomous Communities, nor to the general Electoral Law.

These limits ensure that the decree law will not be used abusively by the Government. It must be debated by the Congress of Deputies (Spanish Parliament) within 30 days, to validate or repeal it (although there will be a very limited number of days in which the decree law is still in force without parliamentary approval). Congress may validate or repeal it, or process it as a bill through the emergency procedure, which allows it to be amended. In practice, the decree law has been established not only as an emergency resource, but as a way through which the executive incorporates laws into the system, saving the time it takes to approve a law as is.

In Spain, the decree law has three limits:

Circumstantial: about the fact that causes the birth of the decree-law (the government is the one that decides when a fact is of "urgent necessity").
Materials: about the content of said standard
Temporary: causing the end of the decree-law or its conversion into law.

The decree law can occupy the "position" or regulate matters that the ordinary law, but never those matters reserved for the organic law (fundamental rights, statutes of autonomy, electoral regime...). Control over the decree-law may deal with its form as a source of law, its content according to its constitutionality, or its production procedure.

Characteristic notes of the decree law:

Extraordinary and urgent need as enablers.
Its provisional nature, the need for validation by Congress in 30 days and its possible urgent processing as laws.
Its regulation cannot affect:

Organization of the basic institutions of the State.
Rights, duties and freedoms of citizens regulated in Title I of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.
CCAA Regime.
General electoral law.

Restricting their use means that frequently resorting to them is considered abuse. The data in the Spanish legislatures until 2020 are as follows:

Suárez1 (1976-1977): 18 (pre-constitutional)
Suárez2 (1977-1979): 58 (48 of which were pre-constitutional)
Suárez3 (1979-1981): 18
Calvo-Sotelo (1981-1982): 4
Felipe1 (1982-1986): 39
Felipe2 (1986-1989): 21
Felipe3 (1989-1993): 30
Felipe4 (1993-1996): 39
Aznar1 (1996-2000): 85
Aznar2 (2000-2004): 45
Zapatero1 (2004-2008): 53
Zapatero2 (2008-2011): 55
Rajoy1 (2011-2016): 76
Rajoy2 (2016-2018): 33
Sánchez (2018-2019):42
Sánchez2 (2019-2022):125

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