The new members of the General Council of the Judiciary appointed last July will begin to debate the composition of the committees with which they will begin to function as the governing body of judges, which was delayed due to the difficult election of the presidency of this body and of the Supreme Court (TS), which only came to fruition on September 2.
The advisers must also soon agree on the names of certain senior officials whose appointment corresponds to the plenary session of the CGPJ, notably the vice-president of the Supreme Court.
This position, created in 2013 thanks to a reform of the organic law of the judiciary, must be voted on at the first ordinary plenary session of the Council after the election of the president, Isabel Perelló, responsible for making a proposal.
The election of the vice-president requires a three-fifths majority (13 votes)The two sectors of the Council, each composed of 10 members, will therefore have to reach an agreement again.
By legal obligation, the Vice President of the Supreme Court – who will replace Perelló in case of vacancy, absence, illness or any other legitimate reason, it must be a judge of the Supreme Court.
The group of members of the CGPJ proposed by the PP will transmit to Isabel Perelló the intention that the future vice-president be a judge of the TS who belongs to the Professional Association of the Judiciary (APM).
This is, explain sources from this group, to recognize the majority representation that the APM has in the judicial career and also to compensate the fact that Perelló belongs to the Judges for Democracythe third largest organization of judges, behind Francisco de Vitoria.
Conservative MPs —six of which belong to the APM— They have been the subject of some criticism, which they say is a minority, for having promoted a person associated with the JJpD to the presidency of the Supreme Court and the CGPJ.
This is the first time in history that the two high courts, the Constitutional Court, with Candido Count Pumpidoand the Supreme Court, with Isabel Perelló, are presided over by members of a minority association such as Judges for Democracy. Its members (434, according to CGPJ data from September 2023) represent 14% of all associate judges and 8.2% of the entire judicial career.
The “compensation” formula was already in force on the occasion of the election of the first and only vice-president of the Supreme Court that there has been so far. During the presidency of the conservative Carlos Lesmes, Ángel Juanes, of the JJpD, was appointed vice-president. Juanes’ election was unanimous among the members.
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The Vice President of the Supreme Court is not only responsible for replacing the President in established judicial matters, but also for other powers whose relevance will depend on the extent of the delegations that Perelló makes to him and the imprint that the new position gives to the powers attributed to him by the Organic Law of the Judicial Power.
According to this rule, the vice-president will provide the president of the Supreme Court and the General Council of the Judiciary with “the collaboration necessary for the proper exercise of their functions.”
The Vice President may exercise, by delegation of Perelló, the superior management of the Technical Office of the Supreme Court, “as well as all the functions that the President expressly delegates to him for justified reason”. The inspection of the Supreme Court may also be delegated to the Vice President.
He will be a member by right of the Government Chamber of the High Court and will be responsible for proposing decisions “aimed at guaranteeing the proper functioning of the Supreme Court, as well as ensuring the exact execution of the agreements adopted by the Government Chamber”.
Perelló must communicate to the members a proposal for the vice-president at least seven days before the convening of the first plenary session, so that at the earliest, he can only be elected next week.
