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Josep M Calpe and Ricard Bosch of Bufete Mullerat & Roca, Barcelona explain the principal elements of Spain's dispute resolution system
The Spanish legal system is divided into various jurisdictions, each one of which has the task of examining disputes which arise within its particular area of activity. Basically there are four jurisdictions.
(1) the criminal jurisdiction, which is competent to judge all matters relating to crimes and offences;
(2) the administrative jurisdiction, competent to hear public law questions between different government bodies and between the government and members of the public;
(3) the social jurisdiction, which deals with employment and social security questions; and
(4) the civil jurisdiction, which is competent to deal with all matters relating to private civil and commercial law, as well as any other type of matter which is not specifically attributed to one of the other jurisdictions.
There is thus no special "commercial" jurisdiction as such.
Over and above these four jurisdictions is what could be described as the constitutional jurisdiction which is designed to ensure that all other legal procedures and all legislation respect the contents of the Spanish Constitution.
Each jurisdiction consists of a number of courts and tribunals specialising in the matters which fall within their particular area of the law.
The civil jurisdiction
There are basically two types of procedure which take place within the civil jurisdiction:
(1) ordinary or declarative proceedings. The characteristic feature of this type of proceeding is that it examines all possible aspects of the case in question, with the judge being called on to decide whether or not a particular right or obligation exists.
(2) executory proceedings. This type of proceeding, in contrast to declarative proceedings, is characterized by the fact that the document in which the claim is based, if it meets certain conditions laid down by law, allows the declarative phase to be dispensed with and the case to move directly to the enforcement stage. Proceedings of this type are based on what are known as executory instruments such as bills of exchange, cheques, promissory notes and public deeds.
Procuradores
A peculiar feature of Spanish procedural law is that in certain proceedings the parties have to instruct both a lawyer (abogado) and what is known as...