Acqua, Costituzione e Statuti di autonomia (bienes comunes al resguardo del regionalismo político)

Water regulation has become a key topic in the Spanish legal system and academic debates ever since the second half of XIX Century, when were laid the foundations of a leading model for water management among the most efficacious in European history. Its main features are State powers and unitary river basin authorities (Confederaciones hidrográficas) whose powers are granted in consideration of the concept of natural – and not political – Region. Recent reforms of the Statutes on the Autonomy of Political Regions aimed to draw water basin management into their sphere of jurisdiction. Consequently, the Constitutional Court has guaranteed State powers in consideration of the special nature of water, a public good which – according to European regulation – is not a commercial product like any other but, rather, a heritage which must be protected, defended and treated as such. In order to face the “tragedy of commons”, Spanish legal and constitutional arrangements demonstrate the opportunity of isolating water management from regional gerrymandering.