Organisation of justice. System of courts.
Administration of justice
In terms of contemporary legal systems, the Spanish
system follows what is known as the continental model.
The basic features of this model are:
a separation between the public and private sectors of
the legal system, which is divided into sections covering constitutional,
criminal, administrative, tax, civil, commercial, labour and procedural
matters;
primacy of statute law and written law, within the
system of sources as defined in the Civil Code, namely statute, custom and the
general principles of law;
hierarchical organisation of the judiciary with a
system of judicial appeals.
Types of courts – brief description
The Spanish Constitution of 1978 states that Spain is
a social and democratic state subject to the rule of law, which advocates
liberty, justice, equality and political pluralism as the overriding values of
its legal system.
The Constitution is based on the indissoluble unity of
the Spanish Nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards, and
it recognises and guarantees the right to self‑government of the nationalities
and regions of which it is composed, and solidarity among them all.
Title VI of the Constitution is given over to the
judiciary, with Article 117 stating that the principle of the unity of the
judicial power is the basis for the organisation and operation of the courts.
All these principles inform the organisation of the
courts in Spain, resulting in the existence of a single judiciary making up the
ordinary courts.
Numerous courts exist, among which the work is
distributed according to criteria for determining jurisdiction – subject
matter, amount, person, function or region – since the unity of the judicial
power does not preclude the existence of different courts with different areas
of jurisdiction.
The ordinary courts are those regulated by the Organic
Law on the Judiciary provided for in Article 122 of the 1978 Constitution.
A distinction must be made between three fundamental
aspects:
the territorial aspect;
whether it is a single judge or a bench of judges who
sit in the court;
jurisdiction.
The
territorial aspect
In accordance with the explanatory memorandum to
Organic Law 6/1985 of 1 July 1985 on the Judiciary, the State is divided territorially, for judicial purposes, into municipalities,
districts (partidos),
provinces and autonomous communities, with jurisdiction over them being
exercised by justice of the peace courts (Juzgados de Paz), courts of first instance and preliminary
investigations (Juzgados de Primera Instancia e Instrucción), administrative courts (Juzgados de lo
Contencioso-Administrativo),
labour tribunals (Juzgado de lo Social), courts responsible for the welfare and supervision
of prisoners (Juzgados de Vigilancia Penitenciaria) and juvenile courts (Juzgados de
Menores), provincial courts (Audiencias
Provinciales) and the
autonomous communities’ high courts (Tribunales
Superiores de Justicia). The
National Criminal and Administrative Court (Audiencia
Nacional), the Supreme Court (Tribunal
Supremo), the central courts of
preliminary investigations (Juzgados Centrales de Instrucción) and the central administrative courts (Juzgados
Centrales de lo Contencioso-administrativo) have nation-wide jurisdiction.
Single judge or bench of judges
A single judge sits in all the courts with the
exception of the Supreme Court, the National Criminal and Administrative Court,
the autonomous communities’ high courts and the provincial courts.
The Supreme Court comprises its president, the divisional presidents (presidentes de
sala) and the judges (magistrados) assigned by the law to each division. There are five
divisions: civil, criminal, administrative, labour and military.
The National Criminal and Administrative Court (Audiencia Nacional) consists of a president, the divisional presidents
and the judges assigned by the law to each division (appeals, criminal,
administrative and labour).
The autonomous communities’ high courts (Tribunales Superiores de Justicia) comprise four divisions (civil, criminal,
administrative and labour). They consist of a president, who is also the
president of the civil and criminal divisions, the divisional presidents and
the judges assigned by the law to each division.
The provincial courts (Audiencias Provinciales) comprise one president and two or more judges. They
hear civil and criminal cases. There may be sections with the same composition.
The Courts Office
The Organic Law on the Judiciary defines the Courts
Office (Oficina Judicial) as an administrative organisation which acts as a
support for the judicial work of judges and courts.
It was designed to improve the efficiency,
effectiveness and transparency of judicial proceedings, to streamline the
resolution of cases, and to encourage cooperation and coordination between the
various administrations. The launch of this Office is thus a response to the
undertaking to ensure a quality public service that is close to the people,
complies with constitutional values and is in keeping with the actual needs of
citizens.
It is a new organisational model that introduces
modern management techniques based on a combination of different administrative
units: units providing direct support for judicial procedures equivalent to the
old courthouses (juzgados), which support the judge in his judicial duties, and
common procedural services headed by registrars (Secretarios
Judiciales), which carry out
and decide on all the tasks that are not strictly judicial such as receiving
documents, handling summonses, enforcing decisions, non-judicial proceedings,
admission of a petition for trial, notification of parties, remedying of
procedural shortcomings, etc.
There are three types of common procedural services:
Common General Service
Common Case Management Service
Common Enforcement Service.
The new organisational model was launched in Burgos
and Murcia in November 2010. In February 2011, the Courts Office was established
in Cáceres and Ciudad Real, and in Leon, Cuenca and Mérida in June 2011. It
will also be established in Ceuta and Melilla in 2013.
This model coexists
alongside the former model of courthouses (juzgadosand tribunals) which is found elsewhere in Spain.
Jurisdiction
In addition to the territorial aspect, the matters or
issues that can come before the courts are of different kinds, and are dealt
with by four systems of courts:
Civil courts: deal with disputes not explicitly assigned to
another class of court. They can therefore be described as ordinary courts.
Criminal courts: criminal cases and proceedings must be dealt with in
the criminal system. In Spanish law, however, civil action arising out of a
criminal offence can be brought at the same time as the criminal action. In
such a case, the appropriate damages to be paid in order to make good the loss
caused by the offence or misdemeanour will be determined by the criminal court.
Administrative courts: examine the legality of acts carried out by the
authorities and financial claims made against them.
Labour tribunals: deal with claims made under labour law, both in
individual disputes between workers and employers arising from the employment
contract, and in relation to collective bargaining, as well as social security
claims or claims against the state when it bears liability under employment
legislation.
In addition to these four court systems, there are
also military courts in Spain.
The military courts are an exception to the principle
of the unity of the judicial power.
In Spain no system of extraordinary courts exists;
however, in the context of the judicial systems mentioned, special courts have been created for specific matters,
for example courts dealing with violence against women, courts responsible for
the welfare and supervision of prisoners and juvenile courts. These are
ordinary courts but are specialised in a particular area. For more information,
see the factsheet on specialised courts in Spain.
Hierarchy of courts
The system of appeals gives rise to a hierarchical
structure of courts within the appeal system.
You must find out what the Spanish legal system says
as regards the jurisdiction of each court in order to see what possibilities of
appeal exist and before which court an appeal must be lodged.
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