The Judiciary of Spain consists of Courts and Tribunals, composed of judges and magistrates (Justices), who have the power to administer justice in the name of the King of Spain.
Law
The Spanish legal system is a civil law system based on comprehensive legal codes and laws rooted in Roman law, as opposed to common law, which is based on precedent court rulings. Operation of the Spanish judiciary is regulated by Organic Law 6/1985 of the Judiciary Power, Law 1/2000 of Civil Judgement, Law of September 14 1882 on Criminal Judgement, Law 29/1998 of Administrative Jurisdiction, Royal Legislative Decree 2/1995, which rewrote the Law of Labour Procedure, and Organic Law 2/1989 that regulates Military Criminal Procedure.
Constitutional principles
The Spanish Constitution guarantees respect for the essential principles necessary for the correct functioning of the judiciary:
Impartiality: to guarantee the assured effective judicial trusteeship to all citizens by the Constitution, judges must remain impartial in cases that they judge and must abstain from cases that they have no reason to enter into. Independence: courts and tribunals are independent of all authority or people in the exercise of jurisdictional power. Irremovability: judges and magistrates are irremovable and cannot be removed, suspended, separated or retired without cause and with guarantees established by law. Responsibility: judges and magistrates are personally responsible for their disciplinary infractions and crimes committed in the exercise of their office; this responsibility can only be required by the established legal disciplinary tract, without interference by the executive or legislative branches of the government or through ordinary legal proceedings. Legality: in the exercise of their jurisdictional functions, judges and magistrates are subject to the Constitution and to the rest of the laws just as other branches of government and citizens are.
Court organization
The judiciary can be organised into different levels of territorial organisation:
the national courts
the autonomous communities of Spain
the provinces of Spain
the judicial district, which is the basic unit of the judiciary, covers one or several municipalities, and is served by at least one first instance and inquiry court
The judiciary can be also organised into five jurisdictional orders, which are each composed of several different circuits:
civil jurisdiction
criminal jurisdiction
administrative jurisdiction
labour or social jurisdiction
military jurisdiction
Unipersonal courts are those courts that are controlled by one judge as opposed to the rest of the High Courts of Justice controlled by panels of judges. They are the basic units of judicial procedure in Spain.
Territorial
National
Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Spain () is the highest judicial body in Spain. Composed of five chambers, it has cognizance of all jurisdictional orders and its rulings cannot be appealed, except to the Constitutional Court, when one of the parties claims that their constitutional rights have been infringed.
Audiencia Nacional
The , based in Madrid, has jurisdiction over the entire territory of the nation. It has four Chambers, although it is composed of 3 jurisdictions, that cover:
Appeal (no jurisdiction), will take cognizance of appeals against Criminal Jurisdiction rulings. Criminal jurisdiction in cases pertaining to crimes against the Spanish Crown, terrorism, organized crime, counterfeiting and crimes committed in more than one jurisdiction. Administrative jurisdiction, deals with appeal cases against resolutions of ministers, secretaries of state, the Council of Ministers] and the chiefs of staff of the armed forces. Social jurisdiction involves cases pertaining to collective bargaining agreements that cover more than the territory of one autonomous community.
The Audiencia Nacional also has specialized courts dealing with criminal inquiries, penitentiary surveillance and juvenile cases.
Some jurists consider this court to be unnecessary and a successor to the Public Order Court, the political court during the Francoist Period.
Autonomous communities
High Courts of Justice
The High Courts of Justice () have authority over a single autonomous community, and are the highest jurisdictional body of the autonomous community without prejudice to the Supreme Court. They are divided into three Chambers covering four jurisdictional orders: