Proposal to let judges choose the judicial members of the CGPJCGPJ The General Council of the Judiciary, the body that governs judges: appointments, promotions and discipline.

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. The bill, introduced by the Citizens parliamentary group (Grupo Parlamentario Ciudadanos) and admitted for processing in the Congress of Deputies, is not an approved law. It would change how the twelve judicial members of the General Council of the Judiciary are chosen: instead of being appointed by the Congress and the Senate, they would be elected directly by serving judges and magistrates through a personal, equal, direct and secret vote, with a single nationwide district and open lists.
2. For the eight jurist members, the bill keeps their election by the Cortes Generales (four proposed by the Congress and four by the Senate, by a three-fifths majority), but adds that candidates must appear before the relevant committees so their merits and suitability can be assessed in a public hearing. It also limits any member to two consecutive terms.
3. The bill would have judicial leadership posts, such as presidents of provincial courts, superior courts of justice and the National Court, elected by vote of the magistrates, and Supreme Court seats filled through merit-based competitions with objective scoring and a public defense of each candidate's merits.
4. It creates a Professional Evaluation Commission within the General Council of the Judiciary, made up of four members, which would periodically assess the performance of all judges and magistrates using data such as the quality of rulings, the percentage of overturned decisions and average resolution times.
5. It limits the so-called revolving door: a judge who has been on leave to run in elections or to take a freely appointed public office could not return to the judiciary until two years have passed since leaving that post, and on returning would have to step aside from cases where political parties they were linked to are parties to the case.
6. Government Secretaries and Coordinating Secretaries would no longer be freely appointed and would instead be chosen through merit-based competitions with public calls. The law would enter into force the day after its publication in the Official State Gazette, and the Council would have six months to issue the regulations needed to implement it.

Who it affects

• Judges and magistrates: They would directly elect the twelve judicial members of the Council and court presidents, and their promotion would be governed by merit competitions and performance reviews.
• Members of the General Council of the Judiciary: They would work on an exclusive basis, serve at most two consecutive terms and receive a single salary set in the State Budget Law.
• Jurists and lawyers: They could join the Council's jurist slate and Supreme Court magistrate seats, with a prior public hearing and experience requirements.
• Congress and Senate: They would stop appointing the twelve judicial members and would only choose the eight jurist members.
• Court clerks (Letrados de la Administración de Justicia): Government Secretaries and Coordinating Secretaries would be chosen by merit competition instead of free appointment.

Words worth knowing

Consejo General del Poder Judicial (CGPJ)

The body that governs judges in Spain: it oversees their training, promotions and disciplinary system.

Vocal

Each of the twenty members that make up the General Council of the Judiciary.

Concurso de méritos

A system for filling a post by objectively comparing the merits of the candidates.

Puertas giratorias (revolving door)

Movement of a judge or public official into another public or private post, with a possible conflict of interest.

Tres quintos (three-fifths)

A reinforced majority: three out of five votes, required to appoint Council members.

CGPJ

The General Council of the Judiciary, the body that governs judges: appointments, promotions and discipline.

It summarizes the text as it was introduced. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries