Spanish judiciary stymied by failure to reach political accord

The General Council of the Judiciary (Consejo General del Poder Judicial-CGPJ) in Spain is a constitutional body made up of judges and other jurists that exercises judicial functions with the aim of guaranteeing the independence of judges in the exercise of their judicial functions before the public.  It deals with matters such as the nomination, promotion and transfer of judges; the inspection of courts and tribunals and disciplinary matters involving  the judiciary. Giving this competence to the CGPJ avoids the possibility that another State power, in particular the Executive, could influence the independence of the judiciary, directly or indirectly.

The CGPJ is supposed to be renewed every five years. Its twenty members serve a five-year term.  The five-year delay in reforming the CGPJ, which was bogged down in political party conflict, and the legal prohibition, endorsed by the Constitutional Tribunal on October 2, 2023, that the CGPJ, once its mandate has expired, can no longer make discretionary judicial nominations, has resulted in an unprecedented institutional crisis.  The five chambers of the Spanish Supreme Court are the most affected since all of its judges are discretionary nominations; they currently have 56 judges instead of the 79 required, and there is little expectation that the 23 vacancies will be filled any time soon. Three vacancies on the Military Chamber of the Supreme Court have not been filled since December because the interim president passed into the reserves and has not been replaced. Recourse has been made to a system of substitutions, but these are only a provisional solution.

Once the Constitutional Tribunal determined that the law which prohibits the discretionary nominations is in accord with the Spanish Constitution, various Supreme Court judges declared that it is necessary to reform the CGPJ immediately. In addition to the 23 vacancies on the Supreme Court there are an additional 63 vacancies on the other Spanish high courts. The Supreme Court has warned that not filling the vacancies will result in 1,000 fewer judgments this year.

The European Union has warned that Spain is failing to comply with the recommendations of the reports that monitor the rule of law in countries in the EU and insists that reform of the CGPJ should be carried out immediately.  If there is no political agreement, however, the CGPJ will remain unable to make nominations and the vacancies will continue to accumulate.