Revisión histórico-jurídica del principio de Autonomía Universitaria y su relación con la existencia de elecciones en el seno de la Universidad

Abstract

Since the origins of universities, they have always enjoyed some degree of self-governmentand self-organization. Eight hundred years after the first universities were created,the States, aiming to interfere in their internal affairs, have deprived them of their autonomy.This paper tries to establish the main traits of the principle of University self ruleand to differentiate it from the fundamental rights and “garantías institucionales” (wherethe Spanish Constitution places it). Besides, we try to find the legal relation betweenself-rule and ballots as a procedure to elect the people who are to run the University.Finally, we give some reasons to justify the traditional separation between State andAcademy. For this, it will be studied different election rules of governmental universityorgans thorugh history in order to conclude that ballots inside universities are based in acorporate principle, but not in a democratic rule.