The case law of the Spanish Constitutional Court on the question of regional planning and the environment

T he boundaries that exist between town planning (urbanismo) and regional planning (ordenación del territorio) are such that it may be suggested that regional planning represents a ‘macro’ viewpoint, whereas town planning can be categorised as more closely resembling a ‘micro’ approach.1 Both variables have their own features and existence, and both are embellished in turn by a common substratum, namely the environment. As Bassols Coma2 emphasises, it is impossible to ignore "the irreversible consideration of land as the basis and framework for environmental phenomena".3 The Constitutional Court Judgment (hereinafter abbreviated as CCJ) 306/2000 states that there is an "intimate connection" between environmental issues and strict regional planning. One of the aims of regional planning, for instance, is environmental protection.4 Environmental protection, in turn, cannot be entirely satisfactory unless it is based on proper regional planning.