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Treatment of Foreign Law - Dynamics towards Convergence? pp 329–346Cite as

Spain: The Application of Foreign Laws in Spain – Critical Analysis of the Legal Novelties of 2015

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Part of the book series: Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law ((GSCL,volume 26))

Abstract

The Spanish system about treatment of foreign laws is regulated in different legal sources including the recent Act 29/2015 on International Legal Cooperation. The inconsistency between the mandatory nature of conflict of laws rules and the burden of parties of proving the foreign law makes the system unsatisfactory in the judicial scope whereas more flexible solutions -and consequently more satisfactory outcomes- can be evidenced in the non-judicial scope. This research approaches both scenarios from a legal and practical perspective and analyses the current solutions and some proposals of improvement.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    BOE (Spanish Official Journal) n. 182 of 31.7.2015.

  2. 2.

    Judgments 436/2005 of 10.6.2005 (RJ \2005\6491).

  3. 3.

    According to the information provided by the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security on 30 June 2016 more than 5 million foreigners were (legally) residing in Spain, most of them from Romania and Morocco. Information available at (accessed 26.10.2016): http://extranjeros.empleo.gob.es/es/estadisticas/operaciones/con-certificado/201606/Residentes_Principales_Resultados_30062016.pdf

  4. 4.

    VALLESPÍN PÉREZ, D.: “La prueba del Derecho extranjero en la Ley 1/2000, de Enjuiciamiento Civil”, Justicia: Revista de Derecho procesal, No 1, 2000, p. 36.

  5. 5.

    Judgment of Spanish Supreme Court 797/2007 of 4.7.2007 (RJ\2007\4937) and others listed in it. Some authors believe that the ex officio application of foreign laws is unreasonable. FORNER DELAYGUA, J.: La prueba de los hechos en el proceso: aspectos de ley aplicable, Bosch, Barcelona, 2006, p. 95.

  6. 6.

    BOE n. 7 of 8.1.2000.

  7. 7.

    Article 33.1 Act 29/2015: “The proof of the content and validity of foreign laws shall be governed by the Civil Procedure Act and other provisions applicable to this matter”.

  8. 8.

    IGLESIAS, J.L., ESPLUGUES, C., PALAO, G., ESPINOSA, R., AZCÁRRAGA, C.: “Spain” in IGLESIAS, J.L., ESPLUGUES, C. and PALAO, G.: The Application of Foreign Laws by Judicial and Non-Judicial Authorities in Europe, Sellier, Munich, 2011, p. 356.

  9. 9.

    See in this regard, ad ex, judgment of the Audiencia Provincial of Valencia of 15.11.1993 (AC 1993\2234) or judgment of the Audiencia Provincial of Santa Cruz de Tenerife of 13.6.1994 (AC 1994\1003). “Audiencias Provinciales” are Appeal Courts of regional scope.

  10. 10.

    Judgment 10/2000 of 17.1.2000 (RTC 2000\10). BOE n. 42 of 18.2.2000.

  11. 11.

    IGLESIAS, J.L. and ESPLUGUES, C.: Derecho internacional privado, Tirant Lo Blanch, Valencia, 2016, pp. 306–307.

  12. 12.

    Judgments of Spanish Supreme Court of 22.5.2001 (RJ 2001\6477) and of 15.3.1984 (RJ 1984\1574).

  13. 13.

    For instance, Judgment Audiencia Provincial of Málaga 120/2005 of 10.2.2005 (JUR\2005\139773) about separation of Moroccan spouses governed by Moroccan Law. The court holds that despite the resources available for judges, the burden of proving the content of the foreign law rests with the parties.

  14. 14.

    This is clearly reflected in the above mentioned Judgment of the Constitutional Court 10/2000 of 17.1.2000. The Court held that the claimant’s right of access to justice had been violated by the Audiencia Provincial of Vizcaya because it had frustrated the possibility of ascertaining Armenian law to her divorce after having sufficiently proved that she was diligent in trying to prove it.

  15. 15.

    See, for instance, Judgment of Audiencia Provincial of Guadalajara 12/2004 of 14.1.2004 (AC\2004\371). ESPINOSA CALABUIG, R.: “Nota a la SAP de Guadalajara de 14 de enero de 2004”, Revista Española de Derecho Internacional, n. 57, 2005, pp. 350 ff.; or Judgment of Audiencia Provincial of Castellón 64/2009 of 15.7. 2009 (AC\2009\1876).

  16. 16.

    CALVO, A.L. and CARRASCOSA, J.: “La prueba del Derecho extranjero ante los tribunales”, Estudios de Deusto, vol. 54-2, 2006, p. 80.

  17. 17.

    http://ec.europa.eu/civiljustice/index_en.htm (accessed 26.10.2016).

  18. 18.

    https://e-justice.europa.eu/home.do?action=home&plang=en (accessed 26.10.2016).

  19. 19.

    ÁLVAREZ GONZÁLEZ, S.: “Aplicación judicial del Derecho extranjero: la desconcertante práctica judicial, los estériles esfuerzos doctrinales y la necesaria reforma legislativa”, La Ley. Revista jurídica española de doctrina, jurisprudencia y bibliografía, n. 6287, 2005, p. 2004.

  20. 20.

    PALAO MORENO, G.: “Das Fehlen von Vorbringen, Darlegung und Beweis auslandischen Rechts im spanischen Zivilprozess”, ZZPInt, n. 13, 2008, pp. 39–45.

  21. 21.

    Judgment 436/2005 of 10.6.2005 and related decisions listed in it.

  22. 22.

    DESDENTADO BONETE, A.: “Otro cierre en falso? La prueba del Derecho extranjero”, Diario La Ley, n. 1, 2005, p. 1789.

  23. 23.

    Judgments of Constitutional Court 10/2000 of 17.1.2000 (RTC\2000\10), 155/2001 of 2.7.2001 (RTC\2001\155) and 33/2002 of 11.2.2002 (RTC\2002\33). A summary of these three Constitutional decisions is provided in Judgment of the Supreme Court 2652/2003 of 4.11.2004 (RJ 2005\1056).

  24. 24.

    Please note that the facultative drafting of the rule still permits the adoption of other measures. It would have been advisable to include a mandatory rule.

  25. 25.

    IGLESIAS, J.L., ESPLUGUES, C., PALAO, G., ESPINOSA, R., AZCÁRRAGA, C.: “Spain”, cit., p. 364.

  26. 26.

    CALVO CARAVACA, A.L. and CARRASCOSA GONZÁLEZ, J.: “Aplicación del Derecho extranjero en España y la nueva Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil”, Anales de Derecho. Universidad de Murcia, n. 17, 1999, pp. 302–303.

  27. 27.

    RJ 1983\4228.

  28. 28.

    MIRALLES SANGRO, P.P.: Aplicación del Derecho extranjero en el proceso y tutela judicial, Dykinson, Madrid, 2007, p. 213.

  29. 29.

    RJ 2006\6080.

  30. 30.

    BOE n. 151 of 10.6.1957. A new Civil Registry Act will enter into force in July 2017.

  31. 31.

    BOE n. 296 of 11.12.1958.

  32. 32.

    BOE n. 106 of 16.4.1947.

  33. 33.

    Other languages coexist with Castilian in some Spanish regions (Catalonia, Valencia, Galicia, Basque Country, Balearic Islands and Navarra).

  34. 34.

    BOE n. 184 of 31.7.1996.

  35. 35.

    OJ L 65 of 14.3.1968.

  36. 36.

    BOE n. 189 of 7.7.1944.

  37. 37.

    BOE n. 303 of 19.12.1989.

  38. 38.

    BOE n. 309 of 26.12.2003.

  39. 39.

    Arbitration procedures developed within arbitration entities are also governed by the Arbitration Rules of those entities but none of the Regulations which have been consulted for this contribution deal with the application of foreign laws.

  40. 40.

    OJ L 136 of 24.5.2008.

  41. 41.

    BOE n. 162 of 7.7.2012.

  42. 42.

    Available at (accessed 26.10.2016): https://www.boe.es/legislacion/legislacion.php

  43. 43.

    Available at (accessed 26.10.2016): http://www.empleo.gob.es/es/sec_leyes/

  44. 44.

    Available at (accessed 26.10.2016): https://www.boe.es/legislacion/codigos/codigo.php?id=034_Codigo_Civil_y_legislacion_complementaria&modo=1

  45. 45.

    Available at (accessed 26.10.2016): http://www.mjusticia.gob.es/cs/Satellite/es/1288774502225/ListaPublicaciones.html

  46. 46.

    The Spanish representative of this network is The Honourable Judge Francisco Javier Forcada Miranda, Court of Appeal, Madrid. Information available at (accessed 26.10.2016): http://www.hcch.net/upload/haguenetwork.pdf

  47. 47.

    Available at (accessed 26.10.2016): http://ec.europa.eu/civiljustice/index_en.htm

  48. 48.

    Available at (accessed 26.10.2016): https://www.iberred.org/

  49. 49.

    Available at (accessed 26.10.2016): http://legicoop.eu/

  50. 50.

    IGLESIAS, J.L., ESPLUGUES, C., PALAO, G., ESPINOSA, R., AZCÁRRAGA, C.: “Spain”, cit., p. 368.

  51. 51.

    See Spanish answer to the questionnaire of 2007 of The Hague Conference on Private International Law concerning the treatment of foreign law. Available at (accessed 26.10.2016): http://www.hcch.net/upload/wop/genaff_pd09es.pdf

  52. 52.

    Please note that the implementation of bilateral agreements may be affected by the fact that some of the countries with which those agreements have been negotiated are also parties to the London or Montevideo Conventions. For instance, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Czech Republic are also parties to the London Convention. Mexico is a party to the London and Montevideo Conventions. Russia is also a party to the London Convention.

  53. 53.

    We share the disappointed view of the Spanish doctrine: CALVO CARAVACA, A.L.: “Aplicación judicial Derecho extranjero en España. Consideraciones críticas”, Revista Española de Derecho Internacional, n. 68, 2016, p. 155.

  54. 54.

    See the Spanish answer to the questionnaire of 2007 of The Hague Conference on Private International Law concerning the treatment of foreign law. Available at (accessed 26.10.2016): http://www.hcch.net/upload/wop/genaff_pd09es.pdf

  55. 55.

    See IGLESIAS, J.L., ESPLUGUES, C. and PALAO, G.: The Application of Foreign Laws by Judicial and Non-Judicial Authorities in Europe, Sellier, Munich, 2011.

  56. 56.

    AZCÁRRAGA MONZONÍS, C.: “The Urgent Need for Harmonisation of the Application of Foreign Laws by National Authorities in Europe”, International Journal of Procedural Law, 2013-3, pp. 107–109.

  57. 57.

    See in this regard AZCÁRRAGA MONZONÍS, C.: “The Urgent Need for …”, cit., pp. 105–126. We have supported in the past that the adoption of an initiative about this issue at EU level is not only convenient but even necessary to overcome the current unsatisfactory scenario. Such proposal supports the adoption of a new EU Regulation on the treatment of foreign laws covering every situation where judicial and non-judicial authorities have to face this task no matter the source -international or domestic- of the relevant conflict of laws rule pointing the applicable law.

  58. 58.

    See LORTIE, P.: “The Evolution of Work on Foreign Law at the Hague Conference on Private International Law”, 2012, available at (accessed 26.10.2016): http://www.hcch.net/upload/hidden/2012/lortie.pdf

  59. 59.

    All information available at (accessed 26.10.2016): http://www.hcch.net/upload/hidden/2012/xs2foreignlaw.html

  60. 60.

    ESPLUGUES, C. (Rapporteur), IGLESIAS, J.L., PALAO, G., ESPINOSA, R. and AZCÁRRAGA, C.: “General Report on the Application of Foreign Law by Judicial and Non-Judicial Authorities in Europe”, in IGLESIAS, J.L., ESPLUGUES, C. and PALAO, G.: The Application of Foreign Laws by Judicial and Non-Judicial Authorities in Europe, Sellier, Munich, 2011, pp. 38 ff.

  61. 61.

    Two more networks which have been created within this public body are also worth mentioning in the scope of international cooperation: REJUE (Red Judicial Española, Spanish Judicial Network) and REDUE (Red de Expertos en Derecho de la Unión Europea, Network of Experts in European Law). Further information at (accessed 26.10.2016): http://www.poderjudicial.es/cgpj/es/Temas/Redes-Judiciales

  62. 62.

    CARBALLO PIÑEIRO, L.: “El carácter imperativo de la norma de conflicto y la prueba del Derecho extranjero. Una relectura en clave procesal y constitucional”, Anuario Español de Derecho Internacional Privado, 2001, p. 493.

  63. 63.

    RODRÍGUEZ SÁNCHEZ, J.S.: Una introducción al Reglamento de Sucesiones de la UE –desde la perspectica de los derechos reales sobre bienes inmuebles y el Registro de la Propiedad de España-, Cuadernos de Derecho Registral, Fundación Registral, Madrid, 2013, p. 41. The author explains how Registrars have traditionally make efforts to find out the content of foreign succession laws. At least the most commonly applied in Spain such as French or German laws.

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  1. Faculty of Law, University of Valencia, Avda/Los Naranjos, s/n, Valencia, 46022, Spain

    Carmen Azcárraga Monzonís (Associate Professor)

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  1. Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Yuko Nishitani

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Azcárraga Monzonís, C. (2017). Spain: The Application of Foreign Laws in Spain – Critical Analysis of the Legal Novelties of 2015. In: Nishitani, Y. (eds) Treatment of Foreign Law - Dynamics towards Convergence?. Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law, vol 26. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56574-3_15

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