Tourism Law in Europe

persons, and sometimes being unable to have an Administration or a competent jurisdiction determine a geographical reference when it comes to knowing what legal framework to submit to. Thus, electronic communications make it possible for a user of tourist services to contract accommodations or tourist transport from anywhere in the world, using a tourist marketing channel or an electronic tourist reservation centre located in any other part of the planet. In these cases, figuring out which order is applicable becomes a labyrinth with a very elusive exit. That is why experience and even common sense advise reviewing this “territorialisation” of tourism law, as it led to a cantonalism and a quartering that has become the source of legal problems, mainly for end users of tourist services. Large companies that provide, for instance, accommodation, tourist transport or complementary offers have legal departments that can deal with this problem, however, end users are totally defenceless in this situation, having to choose between contracting legal services or, on the contrary, abandoning any type of legal action and renouncing the defence of their rights. In the following pages, we will analyse the distribution of tourism competencies in some European legal systems, mainly in Spain and Portugal, and see what international organisations (especially the European Union) offer as potential vehicles for the creation of a global tourism law. II. State Ordinances II.1. Spain II.1.1. Tourism, regional competition In other countries where there are different Administration levels, the powers are distributed following a list of powers belonging to the State, and those not included can be assumed by the territorial Administrations (federated states) 3 or in line with a list of 3 As a particular case, Federal States have two types of Constitutions, the one that belongs to the Federal State and each individual state has its own respective constitution. Both types of Supreme Laws are at the same level, but this is very different from the case of Spain, where we only have a single Constitution, over and above the different Statutes of Autonomy, which are approved in Congress as laws.