This study investigates the phenomenon of obligatory dative doubling, examining data based upon a critique of two analyses of clitic doubling in Spanish within different grammatical frameworks. Previous analyses propose that dative clitic doubling is obligatory whenever the Noun Phrase in indirect position is not a semantic Recipient/Addressee (Goal). The data presented demonstrate that obligatory clitic doubling does not depend solely on the thematic role of the dative but that other features must be considered. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 reviews an analysis proposed within Relational Grammar and outlines structural and theory-based problems with the argument; Section 3 summarizes another analysis regarding dative clitic doubling proposed within Government and Binding theory as well as potential theory-based problems and shows the similarities with the earlier theory. Section 4 discusses thematic roles and presents data that cannot adequately be accounted for by either analysis. Section 5 presents implications for further research. (JL)