The High Court of Justice of Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla (, ''TSJA''), is the highest

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 ...

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

, and for the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

autonomous cities of

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain#Autonomous cities, autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta is one of th ...

and

Melilla Melilla (, ; ) is an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was part of the Province of Málaga un ...

.Constitución del TSJA
Portal Adriano, the web portal for the courts of Andalusia. Accessed online 2009-12-30. Its seat is the former Royal Chancery of Granada. The TSJA has full power over all the jurisdictional orders: civil and penal law, social law, administrative disputes, and any other orders that may be created in the future.
Portal Adriano, the web portal for the courts of Andalusia. Accessed online 2009-12-30. The TSJA is the final jurisdictional court of all trials initiated in the

autonomous community The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...

of Andalusia and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and is the final appeal court for all legal processes that occur in those areas, whatever law is invoked as applicable, in accord with the Organic Law of Judicial Power and without prejudice to the powers reserved to 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 ...

History of the High Court

The TSJA was created as provided for in Article 7 of the original (1981) Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia. In the first ordinary session of the

Parliament of Andalusia The Parliament of Andalusia () is the legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia instituted by the Andalusian Charter of Autonomy of 1981. It is elected by the residents of Andalusia every four years. Functions *To elect the ...

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

was chosen as the seat of the TSJA, making that city the judicial capital of Andalusia;

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

is the political capital. The TSJA was constituted in 1989. This superseded the old '' Audiencias Territoriales'' and gave rise to a new judicial model adapted to the requirements of 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 ...

and the Statutes of Autonomy of the various autonomous communities. The new territorial model and the new model of judicial power made it necessary to replace the two old courts—seated in Granada and Seville, respectively—with a single court for the whole of Andalusia, Ceuta, and Melilla, as well as the creation of the Divisions (''Salas'') of Civil and Penal Law and the Division of Social Law, to which new powers were attributed. The new court was not considered as having continuity from the previous ''Audiencia Territorial''; it was an entirely new creation. It does not consider the decisions of that court as

precedent Precedent is a judicial decision that serves as an authority for courts when deciding subsequent identical or similar cases. Fundamental to common law legal systems, precedent operates under the principle of ''stare decisis'' ("to stand by thin ...

s. Owing in part to the judicial history of Seville, two displaced divisions (''Salas desplazadas'') were created in that city: a Division of Administrative Disputes (''Contencioso-Administrativo'') and a Division of Social Law. Because of the importance of the city of

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

and the large volume of cases generated in the surrounding

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, despite the city having no prior history as the seat of a judicial institution, two ''salas'' were created as in Seville. Both of these also have equivalents in Granada. In 1997 the

Andalusian Autonomous Government The Regional Government of Andalusia () is the government of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia. It consists of the Parliament, the President of the Regional Government and the Government Council. The 2011 budget was 31.7 billion euros. It emp ...

transferred material and human resources to the TSJA, permitting the latter to gain more institutional importance within Andalusia. This occurred in part because of a series of agreements increasing cooperation between the Andalusian Autonomous Government and the

General Council of the Judiciary The General Council of the Judiciary (, 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 is established by the Spanish Constitut ...

. On 17 June 1999 it was celebrated the tenth anniversary of the High Court of Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla, with the presence and involvement of the president of the Supreme Court and of the General Council of the Judiciary, the president of the Andalusian Regional Government, the president of the

and the president of the court itself.

History of the seat of the TSJA in Granada

The seat of the high court is the former Royal Chancery of Granada. From 1505 to 1834, the Royal Chancery had jurisdiction over the

Kingdom of Granada The Emirate of Granada, also known as the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, was an Islamic polity in the southern Iberian Peninsula during the Late Middle Ages, ruled by the Nasrid dynasty. It was the last independent Muslim state in Western Europe. ...

, over the three kingdoms that then made up Andalusia (

Córdoba Córdoba most commonly refers to: * Córdoba, Spain, a major city in southern Spain and formerly the imperial capital of Islamic Spain * Córdoba, Argentina, the second largest city in Argentina and the capital of Córdoba Province Córdoba or Cord ...

, and Jaén, as well as the

Kingdom of Murcia After roughly two decades as a protectorate of the Crown of Castile, the territory of the Taifa of Murcia became the Kingdom of Murcia (, a territorial jurisdiction of the Crown of Castile) in the wake of its Conquest of Murcia (1265–66), conq ...

La Mancha La Mancha () is a natural region, natural and historical region in the provinces of Spain, Spanish provinces of province of Albacete, Albacete, province of Cuenca, Cuenca, province of Ciudad Real, Ciudad Real and province of Toledo, Toledo. It ...

, certain provinces of

Extremadura Extremadura ( ; ; ; ; Fala language, Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is a landlocked autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, Spain, Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central- ...

, and the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

. The oldest parts of the present building were built around 1531. The present façade and staircase date from slightly later, during the reign of King Philip II; the façade was completed in 1587. The building contains numerous sculptures and paintings from roughly that era, as well is ironwork, tapestries, and so forth. In 1762 a stone

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

was added to the

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

, with carved pyramids and a 16th-century clock in the center. That clock used to be in an interior staircase; its old place was filled in 1806 by a marble medallion with the figure of King

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

.La Real Chancillería. Sede del TSJA
Portal Adriano, the web portal for the courts of Andalusia. Accessed online 2009-12-30. In 1834, the status of the Chancery was reduced to that of an ''Audiencia'', with jurisdiction over the provinces of

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of Almería, province of the same name. It lies in southeastern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia on the Mediterranean S ...

, Jaén and

Powers

As remarked above, the TSJA is the highest court in Andalusia, Ceuta, and Melilla, subject only to the powers reserved for the Supreme Court of Spain. More specifically, the TSJA fulfills several roles, corresponding to its various divisions (''salas''). The

Divisions of Civil and Penal law Division may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting of 10,000 to ...

(''Sala de lo Civil'' and ''Sala de lo Penal'') has jurisdiction over charges under civil or criminal law against civil officials and magistrates related to the execution of their offices, except insofar as the Statute of Autonomy assigns certain jurisdiction to the Supreme Court. It also is the court with jurisdiction in disputes between courts in the autonomous community that do not have any other common superior court. The Division of Administrative Disputes (''Sala de lo Contencioso Administrativo'') has broad

appellate In law, an appeal is the process in which Legal case, cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of cla ...

powers and power to review administrative actions by government entities. The Division of Social law (''Sala de lo Social'') deals specifically with

labor law Labour laws (also spelled as labor laws), labour code or employment laws are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship be ...

Presidency of the TSJA

Notes

External links

''Portal Adriano''
the web portal for the courts of Andalusia

{{DEFAULTSORT:High Court Of Andalusia Judiciary of Spain Institutions of Andalusia Government of Ceuta Melilla