The General Council of the Judiciary (, CGPJ) is the national council of the judiciary of

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It is the constitutional body that governs all the

Judiciary of Spain 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 (legal system), civil ...

, such as

court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

s, and

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

s, as it is established by the

Spanish Constitution of 1978 The Spanish Constitution () is the supreme law of the Kingdom of Spain. It was enacted after its approval in 1978 in a constitutional referendum; it represents the culmination of the Spanish transition to democracy. The current version was a ...

, article 122 and developed by the Organic Law 6/1985 of the Judicial Power (LOPJ). The President of the CGJP is also the president of the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Constitutional nature

The Constitution of 1978 regulates the General Council of the Judiciary in paragraphs 2 and 3 of the section 122.Spanish Constitution Part IV
/ref> This means that, the Constitution only detail the way of election of the eight members of the CGPJ that they will be chosen between the most renowned

jurists A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a legal practition ...

. It requires a minimum of 15 years of experience. Four of them must to be chosen by the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

and the other four by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. Both case requires a

majority A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the "#Related terms, Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a Set (mathematics), set consisting of more than half of the se ...

of three fifths of the members of every Chamber to be elected member of the CGPJ. Otherwise, for the election of the twelve members precedents of the

judiciary The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

, with independence of the professional category that they belong (Magistrate of the

, Magistrate or Judge), the Constitution refers to what is established in a future

Organic Law An organic law is a law, or system of laws, that form the foundation of a government, corporation or any other organization's body of rules. A constitution is a particular form of organic law. By country France Under Article 46 of the Constitutio ...

. The Cortes fulfilled this constitutional mandate with the approval of the Organic Law 6/1985, of 1 July, of the Judicial Power.Organic Law 6/1985, July 1st, of the Judicial Power
Consulted November 19th, 2016.

Functions

The CGPJ is not a jurisdictional body, but an overseeing and organising body of the Spanish Judiciary - it does not form part of the judiciary itself. Among its main functions are: *To elect, among its members, its president and the president of the Supreme Court *To nominate, by a three fifths

two justices of 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 ru ...

*To oversee and inspect the activities of judges and courts. *To select, train, assign destination, administrative situations and establish and keep the disciplinary rules and procedures of judges and magistrates. *To name judges and, with the approval of the Minister of Justice, the Magistrates of the Supreme Court, Court presidents and magistrates. The CGPJ is also compelled to report on all the laws and legal dispositions of the State and the Autonomous Communities pertaining to judicial questions, as well as being consulted in the naming of the Attorney General of the State.

Composition and manner of election

The Constitution determines in its article 122.3: * It will have 20 members and a President. * The President of the CGPJ it is also the President of the Supreme Court. * 12 members will be

Judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

s or

Magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

s. An Organic Law will decide the method of election. * 8 members will be

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

s or

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

s. 4 of them elected by the Congress and 4 by the Senate. The Organic Law 2/2001 (currently in force), modified the Organic Law 6/1985 in which refers to the election system:

Changes in the Organic Law and new reform proposal

According to the original wording of Article 112 of the Organic Law 6/1985, of July 1st, of the Judiciary

Each of the chambers that form the Cortes Generales chose ten members by a qualified majority of three fifths. Six among active duty judges and four among lawyers of recognized competence. Members of the outgoing Council or those who provided services in their technical bodies could not be elected. The President is appointed by the Plenary of the CGPJ between members of the judicial career or jurists of recognized competence. During his term, members can not be removed, replaced, or terminated and can not be re-elected. Formally, they are appointed by the

King of Spain The monarchy of Spain or Spanish monarchy () is the constitutional form of government of Spain. It consists of a Hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarch who reigns as the head of state, being the highest office of the country. The Spanish ...

According to the modification made by Organic Law 2/2001 of June 21st

Organic Law 2/2001, of June 21, modified article 122 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary reforming the election method between members coming from the

. The professional associations of the judiciary or groups of judges who make up at least 2% of the total on active duty may present to the chambers a total of thirty-six candidates, of which the

shall elect six and the other six will be chosen by the

from among the remaining thirty.

Reform proposal of 2012

Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón,

minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

, announced in 2012 his intention to change the method of election of the 12 members of the CGPJ, returning to the old system of 1985. However, on December 21, 2012 the minister attended to the

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

with a preliminary project in which it was established that the election of the twenty members of the governing body of the judges was carried out directly by the

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, without previous elections in the judicial career. Ruiz-Gallardón considered that the reform, consensual with the

PSOE The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( , PSOE ) is a Social democracy, social democratic Updated as required.The PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * List of political parties in Spain, political party ...

, would contribute to depoliticization justice. The Council of Ministers rejected this project.

Members of the CGPJ

The members of the General Council of the Judiciary are the President, the Vice-president and the Members.

Presidents

The President of the CGPJ is also the President of the

. They are: * Federico Carlos Sainz de Robles y Rodríguez (1980–1985) * Antonio Hernández Gil (1985–1990) * Pascual Sala Sánchez (1990–1996) * Francisco Javier Delgado Barrio (1996–2001) * Francisco José Hernando Santiago (2001–2008) * Carlos Dívar Blanco (2008–2012) * Gonzalo Moliner Tamborero (2012–2013) * Carlos Lesmes Serrano (2013–2022) * Isabel Perelló (2024–present)

Vicepresidents

* Rafael Gimeno Gamarra, replaced by Manuel García Miguel (1980–1985)Miembros anteriores del CGPJ
Web Poder Judicial España * Manuel Peris Gómez (1985–1990) * Luis López Guerra (1996–2001) * Fernando Salinas Molina (2001–2008) * Fernando de Rosa Torner (2008–2013)Current members of the GCJ
Web Poder Judicial España * Ángel Juanes (2013–Present)

Members

These are the current Members of the CGPJ since November 29, 2013. They were elected by the

and the

. Since 2018, a third need to be renewed. The members with expired terms refuse to step down. The Spanish parliament has not mustered the 3/5 majority required to appoint new members of the CGPJ.Reuters
/ref> * Roser Bach i Fabregó * María del Mar Cabrejas Guijarro * María Ángeles Carmona Vergara * María Victoria Cinto Lapuente * Álvaro Cuesta Martínez * Nuria Díaz Abad * Juan Manuel Fernández Martínez * Rafael Fernández Valverde * Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gómez * Vicente Guilarte Gutiérrez * Carmen Llombart Pérez * Clara Martínez de Careaga * Juan Martínez Moya * Francisco Gerardo Martínez Tristán * Rafael Mozo Muelas * Enrique Lucas Murillo de la Cueva * Wenceslao Francisco Olea Godoy * Maria Mercè Pigem i Palmés * María Concepción Sáez Rodríguez * María Pilar Sepúlveda García de la Torre

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:General Council Of The Judicial Power Of Spain Government of Spain Law of Spain Judiciary of Spain National councils of the judiciary