The Legal Advisory Council (CJC) has made up to five essential observations on the regulations for traditional bullfighting festivals being prepared by the Generalitat Valenciana. The advisory body proposes a series of changes to the government of Juanfran Pérez Llorca and expresses its doubts about the possibility that the Generalitat, through the Department of Education, establishes transversal curricular elements or specific subjects on Valencian traditional identity signs and values that refer to the bous al carrer. It would be the educational centers, within the framework of their educational project, that would specify this offer.
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Without questioning that the Generalitat Valenciana has the powers to carry out what is foreseen in this provision, the CJC recalls that the inclusion of this subject in the educational curriculum “could contradict the recommendations made to the Spanish State by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, which in its 2018 report already included the recommendation to prohibit ‘the participation of children under eighteen years old as bullfighters and as spectators in bullfighting shows’.”
The Legal Advisory Council emphasizes that this recommendation aims to “prevent harmful effects on children,” whose interest in not being exposed to violence the Council defends, “takes precedence over any other legitimate interest that may concur or conflict, such as the right to freely participate in cultural life, to prevent situations of risk to the physical and mental health of those children.”
The CJC points out that including traditional festivals in education could contravene United Nations recommendations
This is not the only reproach made by this body, whose members’ mandate has long expired. The Legal Advisory Council highlights that throughout the text “there is an excessive use of indeterminate legal concepts” and cites several examples: “sufficient ventilation, or sufficient space”; “under sufficiently spacious conditions”; “the shortest possible time”; “sufficient resistance”; “or with sufficient safety.” The use of unclear concepts, warns the Legal Advisory Council, “in a sector that requires meticulous technical regulation could undermine the principle of legal certainty, causing various legal problems in its application.”
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The 5 essential objections
Additionally, among its essential objections, the advisory body reiterates the need to regulate the safety measures to be adopted in any bullfighting festival held. It also considers that it should be regulated, at least minimally, what are the appropriate means for the maritime rescue of people and cattle for the bous a la mar.
Likewise, it asks to improve the article related to the anchoring of platforms for the public or scaffolds; to specify what is meant by “manifest discomfort” due to the poor condition of the facilities; and to ensure that the composition of the Advisory Commission on Traditional Bullfighting Festivals has a balanced presence of women and men in its composition. Regarding the latter, there is a dissenting vote from councilor Enrique Fliquete who points out that the balanced composition “is unnecessary and lacks the essential condition attributed to it.”
The Valencian government announced last July that the draft new regulation for bous al carrer had already begun the citizen hearing process. Many months have passed and, about to start the season with more festivals, the text has still not been approved by the Consell. The Department of Emergencies points out that “the new regulation seeks, above all, to increase safety and animal welfare” and recalls that in 2025 the celebration of 9,542 bous al carrer festivals was authorized in the Valencian Community.
