Was it illegal in 18th century France or Spain to use false titles of nobility?
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Regarding France, using a self-assigned title of "Chevalier" was formally impermissible at the time, although it would have been acceptable in prior centuries. Originally, noble titles were a matter of pure custom, especially for the most ancient families who could not point even in principle to a specific document granting the title. As the centralised monarchy exerted its growing authority, it eventually developed a monopoly on the creation of noble titles. Casanova lived in a time when this had been formally established by the crown.
Royal control was motivated not only by the evident political advantages of being able to dispense patronage, but because nobles were immune from an important tax, la taille. (This is simplifying a complex set of rules but is essentially true; see chapter 6 of Fiscal Crises, Liberty and Representative Government, 1450-1789, ed. Philip Hoffman and Kathryn Norberg; Stanford, 1994). Therefore, various royal ordinances set out to force purported nobles to prove their nobility, and there were several rounds of active investigation in the seventeenth century and up to the Revolution (see the entry for Anobliss*m*nt in Dictionnaire de l'Ancien Régime by Anne Conchon, Bruno Maes and Isabelle Paresys; Armand Colin, 2014). Chevalier is not a noble title as such, and did not grant the same privileges, but it is in the same category of titles that the crown sought to control.
In the case of the lower title "chevalier", I think the first formal sanction is from Louis XIII in the "Code Michau", a long edict of 1629. Its article 189 reads in part:
Nous défendons [...] à toutes personnes de prendre qualité de Chevalier, s'ils ne l'ont obtenu de nos predecesseurs ou de Nous, ou que l'eminence de leur qualité ne la leur attribuë. Enjoignons à tous nos Juges de leur en interdire l'usage & faire soigneus*m*nt observer lesdites Ordonnances.
He also decrees in article 194 that the knightly orders of Saint Michael and of the Holy Spirit are reserved for qualified people of noble ancestry. By this edict, you cannot call yourself Chevalier unless by grant of the king or a predecessor. The title was (in most cases) not an inheritable one, though it was fairly frequently given. Knightly titles were commonly sought by members of noble families who had no higher title, and were also awarded on merit to holders of important offices and so forth. In some regions, such as Brittany, it was automatically available to all titled nobles and their eldest sons - another example of the complex web of local privileges under the law of the ancien regime.
If we can regard Casanova's title as French at all (having invented it, it's not clear if he invented it as a French title or from some other polity) then he might be making himself legally answerable. The same goes for higher titles such as baron or comte, and especially if he tried to exert privileges of the nobility.
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