Josep Antoni González i Casanova

José Antonio González i Casanova (2 December 1935 – 29 October 2021) was a Spanish lawyer, politician, constitutional law academic, and writer, known for being one of the drafters of the Spanish Constitution in 1978.

Biography and career González was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1935. He studied at the local elite school "Jesuïtes Sarrià", where he met Alfonso Carlos Comín.

After graduating in law from the University of Barcelona, Manuel Jiménez de Parga hired González to be an assistant professor of political law at the university. He received his doctorate in 1963, with his thesis entitled "The people's committee of the Yugoslavian commune". At that time, he collaborated with the newspaper La Voz de Galicia.

In the first free elections of 1977, González was part of the PSC candidacy, but in the end they did not count on him. In the first legislature, he was one of the constitutionalist experts that the PSOE consulted to elaborate its project of Constitution. He also participated in drafting the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 1979 and collaborated in drafting the Statutes of Autonomy of the Basque Country in 1979 and Galicia in 1981.

In 1983, the PSOE nominated González as a candidate for judge in the Constitutional Court in the first stage of the body's activity, but Manuel Fraga's People's Party (PP) rejected him for being too "autonomist". Miquel Roca mediated, but was unsuccessful. He was nominated a second time, but again the PP rejected his nomination.

In 2007, González was sued by the PP for libel and slander after he published an article in El País entitled "ETA and PP, the suicidal couple" in which he criticized the attitude of the PP after the ETA bombings in Barajas in 2006. In 2015, he criticized the 2010 Constitutional Court ruling on the new Catalan Statute, saying that "they have led to close the doors of dialogue between the Spanish State and Catalonia". In that interview, he also criticized the Spanish transition to democracy, maintaining that it did not bring about "radical change".

Personal life and death He married Maria Rosa Virós i Galtier, the first female rector of a Catalan university who died in 2010 following a long illness. With her, he had a daughter, , who was a councilor in the City Council of Barcelona.

Honors and awards Premio Mundo-79 (1979) Creu de Sant Jordi (2010) XIV Premio Gaziel (2015)