The ''Court of Public Order'' (Spanish: ) was a court created in

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

to deal with most

political crime In criminology, a political crime or political offence is an offence that prejudices the interests of the state or its government. States may criminalise any behaviour perceived as a threat, real or imagined, to the state's survival, including ...

s. It was instated as the supreme body in the newly created Public Order Jurisdiction, which also comprised an additional court, the Public Order Examination Court. This jurisdiction was considered an additional branch of the ordinary judiciary (thereby it was not considered to be special or exceptional by legal standards), together with the criminal, civil, administrative and social jurisdictions. It was not part of the military courts system. Nonetheless, the Court and its jurisdiction were always considered to be a

special court An extraordinary court, or special court, is a type of court that is established outside of ordinary judiciary, composed of irregularly selected judges or applying irregular procedure for judgment. Since extraordinary courts can be abused to infr ...

. Similar to the German People's Court in its goals, the court allowed for a rather fair process, leading on many occasions to the acquittal of the convict. Despite being considered a politically-oriented, biased court, the members of the court were all senior judges, many of them not members of the official party, and their decisions were made according to the then existing laws. There were instances, however, where many arbitrary decisions were taken.Del Águila, Juan José, ''El TOP. La represión de la libertad (1963-1977)'', Barcelona, Planeta, 2001, It was established in December 1963, following Julián Grimau's execution by

firing squad Firing may refer to: * Dismissal (employment), sudden loss of employment by termination * Firemaking, the act of starting a fire * Burning; see combustion * Shooting, specifically the discharge of firearms * Execution by firing squad, a method of ...

, replacing the '' Tribunal Especial para la Represión de la Masonería y el Comunismo''. It was based in the

Convent of the Salesas Reales The Convent of the Salesas Reales is an 18th-century architectural complex in central Madrid, Spain. Formerly a convent, specifically the convent of the Visitación de Nuestra Señora (Visitation (Christianity), Visitation of Our Lady), it was cons ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. Though its main goal was to repress political crimes in Spain, the Court could not issue death penalties, as these could only be issued by military courts. Therefore, the most serious political and terrorist crimes were dealt with by the military courts, whose death sentences had to be signed by Franco personally.

History

The Public Order Court's purpose was to guarantee the stability of the

public order Public order may refer to * Public security: the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety and security of the public from significant danger or property damage * Public order policing: police maintenance of order ...

as defined by the

Francoist State Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of History of Spain, Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . ...

, by punishing within Spanish territory "those crimes whose characteristic was to subvert the basic principles of the state or to wreak havoc in the national conscience". Some of the high-profile cases handled by the ''Tribunal de Orden Público'' during Franco's rule include the Caso Montenegro in 1964, following a string of explosions in Madrid, and the Proceso 1001 in 1973, in which the leaders of the

Workers' Commissions The Workers' Commissions () since the 1970s has become the largest trade union in Spain. It has more than one million members, and is the most successful union in labor elections, competing with the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), which is ...

(CCOO) trade union were imprisoned.Armando Recio Garcia, ''La prensa jurídica en el tardofranquismo: el Proceso 1001'',

Universidad Complutense de Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

(ed.) The Public Order Tribunal ceased operations by Royal Decree in 1977, two years after Franco's death. The Audiencia Nacional, one of the bodies established during the

Spanish transition to democracy The Spanish transition to democracy, known in Spain as (; ) or (), is a period of History of Spain, modern Spanish history encompassing the regime change that moved from the Francoist dictatorship to the consolidation of a parliamentary system ...

was created the same day in order to take charge of certain non-political crimes considered nationwide like

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tribunal de Orden Publico Government of Francoist Spain 1977 disestablishments in Spain 1963 establishments in Spain