A competence of the autonomous communities, within a national frame
The Constitution assigns hunting to the autonomous communities; Act 42/2007 imposes a common floor on them.
In Spain hunting falls to the autonomous communities. Article 148.1 of the Constitution lists the matters they may assume and states, at point 11ª: «La pesca en aguas interiores, el marisqueo y la acuicultura, la caza y la pesca fluvial» — inland fishing, shellfishing and aquaculture, hunting and river fishing. The seventeen communities have taken up that competence and each has its own hunting act. This is nonetheless not a national vacuum: Act 42/2007 on natural heritage and biodiversity imposes a common floor. Its Article 65 provides that hunting may only concern species determined by the autonomous communities, a determination which may never cover species on the Listado de Especies en Régimen de Protección Especial or those prohibited by the European Union; it adds that the activity must be regulated so as to guarantee the conservation and development of the authorised species. Hunters must therefore read two levels: national law for the limits, the community's act for the application.