The right of access to public information

In both Italy and Spain, people have demanded that the legal system recognise a genuine right for everyone to freely access public information. In part, this has been due to citizens' disaffection with the political system, which has led them to demand a greater role in public decision-making processes and to demand greater efficiency in the fight against corruption in the public sector. Free access to public information favours both, as the information held by the public sector is invaluable for citizens to critically assess "how decisions that affect them are made, how public funds are managed or under what criteria our institutions act" -section I of the preamble of the LTAIBG-. Traditionally, the right of access to public documents has been an issue linked to the administrative procedure and its exercise was limited to being a party to the procedure. This right has been the model followed for the creation of the right of access to public information, although it is born detached from the administrative procedure insofar as it has a democratic basis that the right of access in the administrative procedure lacks. In this doctoral thesis we study the rules that have made it possible in Italy and Spain to create this new political right in the 21st century and its democratic basis. Specifically, in Italy it has been Legislative Decree 33/2013 and Legislative Decree 97/2016 and in Spain the LTAIBG, the rules that have shaped this new right.