Another illegal A-Framer heavily fined in Spain this week

[francisgraham]

Brian Kirby - 2012-04-07 12:49 AM

jhorsf - 2012-04-04 11:11 PMSo taking your argument the gov info page is not law as it has not been tested in court where is your Spanish tested in court law?This is just some Spanish civil servants interpretation of the law then

I think you are confusing common law with statute law. Common law, generally, deems what is not prohibited under statute, or has not previously been tried and found against in court, to be permissible. So, in UK, as there is no statutory prohibition, and no court precedent, against A-frames, they are deemed legal. However, the Spanish prohibition on towing a vehicle is Spanish statute law, and Bruce has previously posted the text in Spanish and English to assist understanding. So, the Spanish prohibition is in black and white, whereas in the UK all we have is the continuing acceptance of a practise until such time as it is banned under statute, or the principle is tried in court and found against.At present, in the absence of any law or precedent, we can happily carry on A-framing, but that is the product of the historic accident that is our legal system. This concept does not generally apply outside the UK.

Basically correct except that this practice does apply outside the U.K in countries that were colonised by Britain. So in the United States Common Law applies in all states except Louisiana, which was once French. In Canada Common Law operates everywhere except in Quebec, which as we all know, was also French.

And of course for French you can also usually read Spanish. I've been watching these threads with great amusement as a small number of people, when presented with evidence after evidence, continue to practise another age-old British custom, that of burying one's head in the sand.

[JamesFrance]

I don't know whether this has been mentioned before, but you can submit a case like this to SOLVIT, which costs you nothing.

 

http://ec.europa.eu/solvit/site/index_en.htm

 

That is what I would do if I wanted to challenge an incorrect application of EU law (if that seems to be what is happening in Spain).

 

There have been arguments going on for years about Spain charging it's residents a 12% 'matriculation' tax when registering means of transport including vehicles and boats over 8 metres. They are still doing this but have changed the name to make it seem to be a tax on pollution, so they don't give up easily.