The Constitutional Court has confirmed its approval of the reform of the Organic Law of the Judiciary, which since March 2021 prevents the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) from making discretionary appointments during its term of office, a situation in which this has been the case since December 2018 due to the PP's refusal to extend it after the expiry of the five-year mandate established by the Constitution. The Guarantee Court, in its plenary session this Tuesday, rejected the appeal lodged by the PP against the limitation of the powers of the panel of judges, as it had already done in October with an appeal by Vox to the same effect. The decision was made with seven votes from the progressive majority compared to four votes from the conservative minority. The verdict comes on the eve of the start of negotiations between the government and the PP to unblock the renewal of the General Council of Justice through a meeting in Brussels where the EU Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, will act as mediator.
More information
The ruling adopted today is the second on the ban on the appointment of judges after the expiry of their mandate, a measure approved by the PSOE in the previous legislative period due to the lack of renewal of the judicial body. The first ruling issued in the matter led to the rejection of Vox's appeal and was also issued on October 2nd by a vote of 7 to 4. In fact, the new resolution represents the repetition of the doctrine of the previous one. On the one hand, he considered the limitation of the powers of the senior judicial body during his term of office and until renewal to be constitutional. The law entrusts to the CGPJ, as long as its mandate is in force, the direct appointment of the judges of the Supreme Court as well as the presidents of the autonomous high courts, the National Court and the provincial courts.
The resolution – whose speaker was Judge María Luisa Balaguer, from the progressive faction of the court – considers it entirely constitutional for the law to limit the powers of the Council as long as it remains in office, given the “institutional anomaly” that it has Renewal means that this corresponds to the Cortes and that the PP has been blocking for five years. As with the ruling rejecting Vox's appeal, the alternative text proposed by the judges of the conservative bloc assumes that limiting the functions of the governing body of judges constitutes a violation of the Constitution since it limits the powers of a body the state and endangers the independence of the judiciary.
The ruling, which now for the second time supports the ban on discretionary appointments – the regulated promotion of judges and magistrates by rank remains one of the powers of the incumbent Judicial Council – is based precisely on the anomaly that represents the lack of renewal of appointments Council. In this sense, the text argues that “the incumbent General Council of the Judiciary must be able to develop the powers corresponding to it constitutionally, but subject to strict limits that prevent this body from acting in a situation of enlargement based on the consent of.” a circumstance of institutional anomaly endangers the future decision-making capacity of the judicial government.”
The General Council of Justice (CGPJ) has been in office for more than five years, during which various attempts at negotiations have been made, which have been successively interrupted by the PP with changing arguments. The situation is becoming increasingly critical in various judicial instances, especially in the Supreme Court, where 24 positions are already vacant, a third of the court's staff, which is at the forefront of all jurisdictional decisions. In February of this year there will be another retirement, increasing the number of unfilled positions to 25 within a few weeks. The situation has left some of the Chambers “on the verge of collapse”, as the President of the Supreme Court, Francisco Marín Castán, also the highest authority of the Civil Chamber, denounced at the opening ceremony of the following judicial year on September 7th. Marín Castán stated this in his speech to King Felipe VI, who presided over the opening ceremony.
What influences the most is what happens next. So you don't miss anything, subscribe.
Subscribe to
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_