Carlos Lesmes Serrano (born 10 June 1958) is a Spanish magistrate and prosecutor serving who served as president of the Supreme Court and president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) from 2013 to 2022. Since December 2018, he served in acting capacity in both posts, as his mandate expired at the time and the renovation of the CGPJ was blocked from then on. He is seen as a Conservative jurist with a religious background.

Judicial career

Lesmes was born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, Spain in 1958. After graduating in

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, Lesmes entered by open tendering in the judicial and prosecution careers in 1984, and he chose to start his career as a prosecutor until 1993 when he entered the judicial career. As a prosecutor, he was assigned to the Provincial Courts of Alicante (1984-1985) and Madrid (1985-1992) and to the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

(1992-1993). In 1993 he returned to the Judicial Career, after overcoming the open tendering to specialist magistrate of the jurisdictional contentious-administrative order. Between 1993 and 1996 he was a magistrate in the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (Englan ...

of the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wi ...

. Between 1996 and 2004, he temporarily suspended its functions as judge within the judicial career switching to politics during the governments of José María Aznar, serving as Director-General for Conscientious Objection (1996–2000) and Director-General for Relations with the Administration of Justice (2000–2004), both roles within the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

. Lesmes returned in 2005 to his position in the Eighth Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the National Court. That year he was appointed Chairman of the Chamber, a position he held until 2010. He was also Acting President of the National Court from September 2008 to April 2009. In March 2010, he obtained a place in the Third Chamber (Contentious-Administrative) of the Supreme Court. In 2012, Lesmes was a member of the Commission appointed by the

to advise on the preparation of the proposed reform of the Judiciary Organic Act and the Judicial Organization Act. On 9 December 2013, he was elected by the Plenary of the

General Council of the Judiciary The General Council of the Judiciary ( es, Consejo General del Poder Judicial, CGPJ) is the national council of the judiciary of Spain. It is the constitutional body that governs all the Judiciary of Spain, such as courts, and judges, as it i ...

as its 8th President and 48th President of the Supreme Court. After requesting a report from the Technical Office of the Supreme Court at the end of September to establish what his succession would be like in the event of his resignation, on 9 October 2022 he announced his intention to resign. He presented his formal resignation to the king on October 10 and was official on October 12. He is in possession of the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Raymond of Peñafort and the gold medal awarded by the Spanish Pro-Human Rights League for his work in favor of

conscientious objection A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to objecti ...

References

External links

''Biografía de Carlos Lesmes'', Consejo General del Poder Judicial

Europa Press.
''Carlos Lesmes, nuevo presidente del CGPJ y del Tribunal Supremo''
www.abogacia.es {{DEFAULTSORT:Lesmes Serrano, Carlos 20th-century Spanish judges 1958 births Living people Members of the General Council of the Judiciary Presidents of the Supreme Court of Spain 21st-century Spanish judges

Judicial career

See also

References

External links