Spanish Constitutional Court
The Spanish Constitutional Court ( Spanish Tribunal Constitucional ) stands outside the hierarchy of the Spanish specialized courts and specifically decides on the question of the compatibility of acts of public authority with the requirements of the Spanish constitution . This mandate is accompanied by the exclusive competence of the Constitutional Court to reject laws in the formal sense as unconstitutional and to declare them null and void. The decisions of the Constitutional Court have the force of law and are published in the Spanish Legal Gazette, the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE).
The legal questions accessible to a decision by the Constitutional Court are listed in the catalog of competencies of the Organic Law (Ley Orgánica 2/1979, de 3 de octubre, del Tribunal Constitucional; abbreviated: LOTC), which also sets the legal framework for the organization and activities of the Constitutional Court (see IV.). Most recently, the Spanish constitutional court law was amended with the organic law of May 24, 2007 (Ley Orgánica 6/2007). The Spanish Constitutional Court has its seat in Madrid .
General
The Spanish Supreme Court ( Tribunal Supremo ) is at the forefront of the Spanish specialized judiciary and has the final say in all proceedings. The decisions of the Supreme Court can only be declared ineffective by the Spanish Constitutional Court within the framework of one of the types of procedure determined by law due to the violation of specific constitutional law. The differences between the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court are therefore not hierarchical, but of a legal competence.
With the amendment of the Constitutional Court Act of May 24, 2007, the Constitutional Court has been strengthened in view of the sometimes controversial distribution of competences, especially in relation to the Supreme Court, as only the Constitutional Court decides on its jurisdiction within the scope of the catalog of competencies and the jurisdiction once assumed by the Constitutional Court by no other Court can be claimed.
In order to avoid conflicts resulting from the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court over civil liability issues in connection with official acts of the judges of the Constitutional Court, the latter should be granted immunity through a legislative initiative from 2005. The background to this was the conviction of judges of the Constitutional Court to pay damages by the Supreme Court. However, the initiative was not implemented; only a few new regulations proposed in 2005 have now come into force with the above-mentioned amendment law of May 24, 2007.
composition
Electoral process and term of office
The Spanish Constitutional Court consists of twelve members, the magistrados. These are appointed by decree (Real Decreto) by the Spanish king. The appointment of four judges is made on the proposal of the two chambers of the Cortes Generales (Congress and Senate). The government and the “General Council of the Judiciary” ( Consejo General del Poder Judicial ) each propose two further judges . When voting in the Cortes Generales, a qualified majority of three fifths of the members of the respective chamber must vote in favor of a candidate.
The judges are appointed for a period of nine years. Every three years, a third of the judges are replaced by new judges at the end of their term of office. In addition to Spanish nationality, the personal prerequisite for appeal to the Constitutional Court is the generally recognized competence of the eligible lawyer, as evidenced by more than 15 years of professional experience. He can work as a public prosecutor, judge, university professor, civil servant or lawyer, for example.
The judges belonging to the constitutional court are independent and irrevocable. During their term of office, they are prohibited from assuming political offices, mandates or managerial functions in a party or trade union or from carrying out any other professional activity.
In the public perception, the members of the constitutional court are assigned to either the progressive (i.e., PSOE- affiliated) or the conservative (PP-affiliated) camp. Since a 3/5 majority is required to fill the judges' posts to be filled by the Congress or the Senate, there is de facto the need for an agreement between the two major parties (PSOE and PP).
In the years 2007 to 2012 there was a blockade in the appointment of new judges because the two major parties could not agree. For the four judge posts actually to be filled by the Senate at the end of 2007, an agreement was not reached until the end of 2010, i.e. with a delay of three years. Due to the same problems, the four judge posts due to be filled by Congress at the end of 2010 were not filled until mid-2012, i.e. with a delay of one and a half years. In the meantime, the previous judges remained in office.
As a result of this blockade of the long overdue new appointment, the court fell into a deep institutional crisis that also affected the public acceptance of its decisions. For example, in the criticism of the court's judgment of June 28, 2010 on the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, it was often stated that it was made by a constitutional court with an irregular cast.
The last replacement took place in June 2013, this time without delay. This time it concerned the two judicial posts to be filled by the government and the two by the Consejo General del Poder Judicial. Since then there has been a 7: 5 majority in the conservative camp:
| Surname | function | "Camp" | suggested by, proposed by | regular end of term of office |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricardo Enríquez Sancho | conservative | senate | December 2016 | |
| Adela Asúa Batarrita | Vice President | progressive | senate | December 2016 |
| Luis Ignacio Ortega Álvarez | progressive | senate | December 2016 | |
| Francisco Pérez de los Cobos Orihuel | president | conservative | senate | December 2016 |
| Juan José González Rivas | conservative | congress | November 2019 | |
| Andrés Ollero Tassara | conservative | congress | November 2019 | |
| Encarnación Roca Trías | progressive | congress | November 2019 | |
| Fernando Valdés Dal-Ré | progressive | congress | November 2019 | |
| Juan Antonio Xiol Rios | progressive | Consejo General del Poder Judicial | June 2022 | |
| Santiago Martínez-Vares García | conservative | Consejo General del Poder Judicial | June 2022 | |
| Antonio Narváez Rodríguez | conservative | government | June 2022 | |
| Pedro José González-Trevijano Sánchez | conservative | government | June 2022 |
organization
The seat of the Constitutional Court is Madrid. The twelve judges of the court form the so-called plenary (pleno), which is divided into two senates (salas) of six judges each. In further subdivisions, the so-called divisions (secciones), three judges decide on the admissibility and thus the acceptance of motions for decision by the constitutional court. With the exception of constitutional complaints, which are exclusively dealt with by the Senate, the Constitutional Court always decides in the composition of the plenary.
The plenary elects a president from among its ranks by secret ballot, who is then proposed to the king for appointment. The president's term of office is three years. The appointment of the Vice-President is carried out according to this procedure. The President and Vice-President take over the chairmanship of the first and second Senate of the Constitutional Court.
The previous exercise, after which the President's term of office as judge was extended until his membership in the Constitutional Court expired, was now legally enshrined in the above-mentioned amending law of May 24, 2007.
Jurisdiction
The following types of proceedings or legal questions are assigned to the Constitutional Court for decision:
Abstract and concrete control of norms
The subject of examination can be laws in the formal as well as in the material sense (e.g. decretos-leyes and decretos legislativos), while legislative acts of the executive branch (e.g. reglamentos) are subject to the review and rejection competence of the specialized courts. If the court determines that a provision is unconstitutional and thus null and void, the consequence of nullity only extends to the provision in question if the law is otherwise accessible to application. As organic laws , the statutes of the autonomous regions of Spain are also subject to regulatory control .
Constitutional Complaint (Recurso de amparo)
The subject of the examination is an act of public authority through which a holder of fundamental rights claims to have violated his constitutionally guaranteed rights. The prerequisite for appeal to the Constitutional Court is exhaustion of the legal process. In view of the high number of (mostly inadmissible) constitutional complaints, the amendment to the Constitutional Court Act of May 24, 2007 has increased the requirements for the presentation and justification of a constitutional complaint. The principles of exhaustion of legal recourse and the subsidiarity of the constitutional complaint are also emphasized more clearly than in the previous version of the Constitutional Court Act.
Competence disputes between the state and the autonomous regions
If there is a dispute between the Spanish state (Estado) and the autonomous regions (Comunidades Autónomas) or between the latter over the powers assigned to the respective regional authority and their exercise, the state or the regions concerned can appeal to the constitutional court.
Organ dispute proceedings
The Constitutional Court decides on disputes between constitutional bodies regarding the rights that affect them. If a constitutional body considers its constitutionally provided rights to be violated by an act by another body or if this constitutes an inadmissible interference with the competences assigned to the body, it can request the constitutional court to clarify the issue.
Local constitutional complaint
In this procedure, the municipalities can ward off interference by the state or the autonomous regions in the rights assigned to them, in particular in the field of self-government.
International treaties
Before the entry into force and thus the attainment of legal status, international treaties can be submitted to the Constitutional Court for examination in the event of doubts regarding their compatibility with Spanish constitutional law.
Appointment of the members
The Constitutional Court decides on the legality of the appointment of judges belonging to the court. Further decision-making powers are or can be assigned to the constitutional court through organic laws (Leyes Orgánicas). In contrast to the German jurisdiction regulation, the pronouncement of a party ban is reserved for the Spanish Supreme Court.
How the decisions are cited
Judgments are abbreviated with STC (Sentencia del Tribunal Constitucional) , decisions with ATC (Auto del Tribunal Constitucional) . This is followed by the sequential number of the respective decision in the calendar year. With "STC 103/2008" z. B. So the 103rd judgment from 2008 is meant. The judgments are divided into a presentation of the facts (antecedentes) and the reasons for the decision ( fundamentos jurídicos, abbreviated to FJ), followed by the tenor (fallo) . With the indication "STC 103/2008, FJ 4" z. B. Reference is made to point 4 of the reasons for the decision in judgment 103/2008.
The decisions are all available on the court's website.
literature
- Francisco Rubio Llorente: The Constitutional Jurisdiction in Spain . In: Christian Starck , Albrecht Weber (ed.): Constitutional jurisdiction in Western Europe . Volume I. 2nd edition. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2007, ISBN 978-3-8329-2640-3 ( Studies and materials on constitutional jurisdiction. Volume 30 / I), pp. 165–198.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d According to Article 16.5 of the Ley Orgánica del Tribunal Constitucional, the term of office of the judges elected “late” ends at the point in time at which they would have ended if they had been regularly appointed. The judges appointed in January 2011 with a delay of a good three years now only have a term of just under six years.
- ↑ a b c d According to Article 16.5 of the Ley Orgánica del Tribunal Constitucional, the term of office of the judges elected “late” ends at the point in time at which they would have ended if they had been regularly appointed. The judges appointed in July 2012 with a delay of almost two years now only have a term of a good seven years.
Coordinates: 40 ° 26 '29.5 " N , 3 ° 43' 3.4" W.