Pardon as exception. Analysis of clemencies granted by the spanish Government in 2012.

This article focuses on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the pardons awarded by the Spanish Government in 2012. The first aim of this article is to know the Spanish Government's policy on pardons. The second one is to approach the legal and political nature of this figure. The act of pardon is a characteristic of sovereign power. Historically, pardon is an expression of the sovereign right of pardon, of his clemency power, forgiveness, in other words, its reserve exercise of power over the lives of the subjects. However, the evolution of the State model and the political and legal structures has made the pardon to be in a border situation: condemning the judiciary and the executive pardoning. Given this unique situation, it is interesting to analyze the uses of pardon and try to explain some reasons behind these uses.