Spanish Judiciary

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.

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.

The Spanish Constitution guarantees respect for the essential principles necessary for the correct functioning of the judiciary:

The judiciary can be organised into different levels of territorial organisation:

The judiciary can be also organised into five jurisdictional orders, which are each composed of several different circuits:

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.

The Supreme Court of Spain (Tribunal Supremo) 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.

The Audiencia Nacional, 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:

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.

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