Conscientious Objection: Considerations about Spain in light of European Case Law

Abstract

In the Bayatyan case, decided in 2011, the European Court of Human Rights accepted that the conscientious objection to military service was implicit in the article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning freedom of conscience and religion. This meant a radical change in the Strasbourg jurisprudence. The study deals with the implications that this change, at the European level, might have in the constitutional interpretation in Spain, taking into account that the current opinion of the Spanish Constitutional Court is that conscientious objection cannot be implicitly found in article 16 of the Spanish Constitution referred to ideological and religious freedom.