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Report on Spain

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Personal Participation in Criminal Proceedings

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Abstract

Personal participation in criminal proceedings is widely protected in the Spanish criminal procedural regime not only in the Criminal Procedural Law but also at a constitutional level. Accused persons are fully protected by a wide variety of procedural rights applied in all stages of the criminal proceeding, enjoying a status in accordance with the high European parameters. Spain has a very specific regime regarding participation of accusations in criminal procedure in so far as citizens, under certain circumstances, can bring criminal actions before the courts even if they are not victims. And, finally, the Spanish system has also been peculiar in the treatment of in absentia proceedings although its criteria has changed as a result of the transposition of European instruments and the application of the European case-law.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See art. 255 of the Constitution of 1812, art. 98 of the Constitution of 1869, and art. 29 of the Constitution of 1931.

  2. 2.

    JCC 34/2008, of 25 February.

  3. 3.

    Spanish Supreme Court Judgment of 26 June 2014, no. 6224/2014.

  4. 4.

    JCC 38/2003, of 27 February.

  5. 5.

    JCC 13/2000, of 17 January.

  6. 6.

    “Ley de Asistencia Jurídica Gratuita”; onwards, LAJG, 1/1996, 10 January.

  7. 7.

    JCC 140/1985, of 21 October.

  8. 8.

    See art. 902 LECrim in relation to appeals, although applicable to other actions by JCC 17/1989, of 30 January, and 40/1990, of 12 March.

  9. 9.

    For more information on these special rules see Bachmaier Winter (2012).

  10. 10.

    “Audiencia Nacional”; passed by Royal Decree 1/1977, of January 4.

  11. 11.

    See in detail Bernardo San José y Padura Ballesteros, in Bachmaier (coord.), 2012.

  12. 12.

    On “acusadores populares” see also Banacloche Palao (2008), p. 9; Giménez García (2009), and Pérez Gil (1997).

  13. 13.

    For example, in JCC 241/1992, of 21 December, 34/1994, of 31 January and 59/1998, of 16 March.

  14. 14.

    Case Botín, Judgment of the Spanish Supreme Court of 17 December 2007 (JUR\2008\189).

  15. 15.

    In the same sense, Judgment of the Supreme Court of 19 July 2002 (RAJ 1371/2002).

  16. 16.

    See JCC 91/2000, 30 March and 134/2000, 16 May, inter alia, concerning extradition proceedings between Spain and Italy.

  17. 17.

    See, for example, in JCC 177/2006, of 5 June.

  18. 18.

    Article 4 (a)1 of the Framework Decision, introduced by the Framework Decision 2009; article summarized in Judgment C-399/11, explained below.

  19. 19.

    JCC 199/2009, of 28 September.

  20. 20.

    JCC 177/2006, of 5 June and 37/2007, of 12 February.

  21. 21.

    JCC 86/2011, of 9 June.

  22. 22.

    Case Melloni, C-399/11, of 26 February 2013.

  23. 23.

    JCC 26/2014.

  24. 24.

    For more details see Escribano Mora (2015), pp. 507 ff.

  25. 25.

    See for all Torres Muro (2013), p. 350; Cedeño Hernán (2010), p. 12.

  26. 26.

    ECtHR. Medenica v. Switzerland, judgment of 14 June 2001, Appl. No. 20491/92.

  27. 27.

    Cf., for example, JCC, order 86/2011, of 9 June.

  28. 28.

    ECtHR, Sejdovic v. Italy, judgment of 1 March 2006, Appl. No. 56581/00; ECtHR, Colozza v. Italy, judgment of 12 February 1985, Appl. No. 9024/80. More recently, cfr. also ECtHR, Demeboukov v. Bulgaria, judgment of 28 February 2008, Appl. No. 68020/01.

  29. 29.

    ECtHR, Poitrimol v. France, judgment of 23 November 1993, Appl. No. 14032/88.

  30. 30.

    See, for example, Torres Muro (2013), p. 355; Cedeño Hernán (2010), p. 11; Torres Pérez (2010), p. 452.

  31. 31.

    JCC 26/2014, of 13 February 2014.

  32. 32.

    See in detail on this topic Aguilera Morales (2016).

  33. 33.

    Also recognized when they are kept in detention: arts. 505.3 and 520 LECrim.

  34. 34.

    For all, ECtHR, John Murray vs. United Kingdom, judgment of 8 February 1996, Appl. No. 18731/91, and Saunders vs. United Kingdom, judgment of 17 December 1996, Appl. No. 19187/91.

Abbreviations

CC:

Spanish Criminal Code

CFREU:

Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

ECHR:

European Convention of Human Rights

ECtHR:

European Court of Human Rights

JCC:

Judgment of the Spanish Constitutional Court

LAJG:

Legal Aid Law

LECrim:

Criminal Procedural Law

LOPJ:

Organic Law of the Judicial Power

SC:

Spanish Constitution (1978)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Procedural Law, University Complutense Madrid, Faculty of Law, Madrid, Spain

    María Luisa Villamarín López

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  1. María Luisa Villamarín López
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Correspondence to María Luisa Villamarín López .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Law, and Political, Economic and Social Sciences, University of Piemonte Orientale, Alessandria, Italy

    Serena Quattrocolo

  2. Law Department, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

    Stefano Ruggeri

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López, M.L.V. (2019). Report on Spain. In: Quattrocolo, S., Ruggeri, S. (eds) Personal Participation in Criminal Proceedings. Legal Studies in International, European and Comparative Criminal Law, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01186-4_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01186-4_13

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