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30-739: Most of the rulings of the National Court can ultimately be appealed before the Supreme Court . Its seat lies in Madrid , at Calle García Gutiérrez, 1, located across the Plaza Villa de Paris from the Supreme Court. The Audiencia Nacional was created in 1977 at the same time as the Court of Public Order , an exceptional court created during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco , ceased to exist. The Audiencia

60-584: A Lieutenant Prosecutor as second-in-command. Supreme Court of Spain The Supreme Court ( Spanish : Tribunal Supremo , TS ) is the highest court in the Kingdom of Spain . The court has original jurisdiction over cases against high-ranking officials of the Kingdom and over cases regarding the legalization of political parties. It also has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all cases. The Court has

90-574: A life tenure. However, the law also established that the magistrates must retire at the age of 70. However, the law allows the magistrates to ask the General Council of the Judiciary an extension of their tenure until the age of 72. The Magistrates can freely retire since the age of 65. Outside of these cases, magistrates shall be forcedly retired when there is a permanent disability for the exercise of their functions. The forced retire can be requested by

120-562: A similar predecessor from 1822 (during the Trienio Liberal ) and an earlier precedent in the 1810 Napoleonic division of Spain into 84 prefectures. There are many other groupings of municipalities that comprise the local government of Spain . The boundaries of provinces can only be altered by the Spanish Parliament, giving rise to the common view that the 17 autonomous communities are subdivided into 50 provinces . In reality

150-595: Is composed of its President, the Presidents of the Chambers, and the magistrates that the law specifies for each one of its courts and divisions. The Audiencia includes the following chambers: Even when they are not part of the National Court, because they are in the same building, the Central Courts are popularly considered part of it. These courts have jurisdiction in all the national territory. The Prosecutor's Office of

180-844: Is entrusted to the Supreme Court Special Commissariat, a unit of the National Police Corps . The Court was originally established by the Constitution of 1812 to replace the System of Councils in all matters that affected justice. The Court derives its current power from Chapter VI of the Constitution of 1978 . The Supreme Court is the court of last resort and can provide finality in all legal issues. It can exercise original jurisdiction over matters of great importance but usually functions as an appellate court able to investigate procedural irregularities arising from actions in

210-565: Is given, together with an indication of the autonomous community to which it belongs and a link to a list of municipalities in the province. The names of the provinces and their capitals are ordered alphabetically according to the form in which they appear in the main Misplaced Pages articles describing them. Unless otherwise indicated, their Spanish-language names are the same; locally valid names in Spain's other co-official languages ( Basque , Catalan , which

240-576: The European Court of Human Rights since Spain is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights . The Supreme Court is the head one of the three branches of the Spanish government, alongside the legislature and the executive To ensure its independence, the Supreme Court has the prerogative to enforce its actions under the principle of obedience to final judicial decisions enshrined in

270-545: The General Council of the Judiciary , the Supreme Court's governing bodies are responsible for hearing and resolving administrative issues that may arise: Provinces of Spain A province in Spain is a territorial division defined as a collection of municipalities . The current provinces of Spain correspond by and large to the provinces created under the purview of the 1833 territorial re-organization of Spain , with

300-606: The Monarch . The Judiciary Organic Act of 1985 copy this procedure of appointment but specifies that the Royal Decree must be countersigned by the Minister of Justice . To be a candidate for Magistrate of the Supreme Court the law establishes two options: The Organic Law on the military jurisdiction provides that half of the members of the Fifth chamber will be selected from general officers of

330-757: The Prosecution Ministry or the magistrate itself to the Governing Council of the Supreme Court or to the Governing Council of a specific chamber. After this, the Governing Council shall send the request to the GCJ and the Council shall approve the retire. The Supreme Court is divided into five ordinary chambers, each dealing with a specific areas of Spanish law that may affect ordinary citizens, and four special chambers dealing with state issues. The five ordinary chambers are: The four special chambers are: Subordinate to

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360-420: The national courts or Provincial courts . It can order ordinary and extraordinary remedies against decisions of lower courts according to the provisions of Spanish law . The Supreme Court is responsible for processing substantial complaints of wrongdoing against prominent persons such as government Ministers , Senators , Deputies and members of the various regional parliaments , senior judges , including

390-624: The "building-blocks" from which the autonomous communities were created following processed defined in the 1978 Constitution . Consequently, no province is divided between these communities. The importance of the provinces has declined since the adoption of the system of autonomous communities in the period of the Spanish transition to democracy . They nevertheless remain electoral districts for national elections. Provinces are also used as geographical references: for instance in postal addresses and telephone codes. National media will also frequently use

420-699: The Constitution or the Organic Judiciary Act specifies the number of magistrates. According to 2017 data, the Court was composed by 79 magistrates. The Constitution does not regulate the form of appointment of the magistrates although it does regulate the procedure of appointment of the President of the Court . According to Section 123, the President is nominated by the General Council of the Judiciary and appointed by

450-426: The Constitution. Also, most of its resolutions are reliable since they are solutions to appeal against the considered decisions of lower courts. The Supreme Court is the only entity that can order the detention of members of its own judiciary or the legislature or executive authorities and then impeach them according to the additional civil and criminal obligations, which, by law, it must discharge diligently in

480-479: The Court was divided into two chambers and the number of magistrates grows up to 25. In 1868, it was created the Third Chamber to know the issues related to the public administrations (administrative law). In 1870 the number of magistrates grow again to 33 distributed in four chambers; one for civil cases, two for criminal cases and one for administrative cases. Between 1875 and 1904 the administrative jurisdiction

510-754: The Military Legal Corps. These members are appointed by the General council of the judiciary from a list proposed by the Ministry of Defence. Upon nomination to the Supreme Court, military members are retired from the armed forces and will act only on the capacity of Supreme Court Justices. The tenure of the Magistrates of the Supreme Court is regulated in Section 386 of the Judiciary Organic Act and it establishes

540-538: The National Court is the body of the Attorney General's Office that prosecute all the cases related to the National Court with the exception of those cases granted to the Special Prosecution Offices (Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office and Prosecutor's Office against Corruption and Organized Crime). The Prosecutor's Office, and the Special Prosecution Offices are headed each one by a Chief Prosecutor and with

570-547: The President and judges of the Constitutional Court , the highest tribunal in the country – regarding constitutional matters –. It also processes formal applications by the procurator (public prosecutor) to outlaw political parties, Generally, there is no avenue of appeal against a Supreme Court decision although, in criminal matters, the Crown may exercise the prerogative of mercy to invalidate sentences imposed or ratified by

600-469: The Supreme Court is nominated by the General Council of the Judiciary and appointed by the Monarch for a lifetime tenure up to the age of 70, when they must retire (unless they request a 2-year extension). The Court meets in its Palace, built by Antonio Ruiz de Salces on the site of the old Convent of the Salesas Reales in Madrid . The security of the buildings and personnel of the Supreme Court

630-616: The Supreme Court, constitutionally, such appeals are resolved by the Council of Ministers and then formalized by the monarch, as head of state. Supreme Court decisions may, exceptionally, be overruled by the Constitutional Court if there has been an infringement of rights and freedoms of citizens embodied in the Spanish Constitution of 1978 – articles 14 to 29 and 30.2, regarding Fundamental Rights – or by decisions emanating from

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660-806: The UN's Second Administrative Level Boundaries data set project (SALB). Most of the provinces are named after their capital town —with the exceptions of Álava , Asturias , Biscay , Cantabria , Gipuzkoa , the Balearic Islands , La Rioja , and Navarre , and a name reduction in Las Palmas and Castellón — and biggest town —with the exception of Pontevedra ( Vigo ), Asturias ( Gijón ) and Cádiz ( Jerez ). Only two capitals of autonomous communities— Mérida in Extremadura and Santiago de Compostela in Galicia —are not also

690-469: The capitals of provinces. Seven of the autonomous communities comprise no more than one province each: Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, La Rioja, Madrid , Murcia , and Navarre. These are sometimes referred to as "uniprovincial" communities. Ceuta , Melilla , and the plazas de soberanía are not part of any province. The table below lists the provinces of Spain. For each, the capital city

720-403: The number of justices. The Supreme Court of Justice Act of 1814 established a high court consisting of 16 "ministers" distributed in three chambers. This act hardly took effect due to the restoration of absolutism in 1814, although it was in force between 1820 and 1823. In 1834, it was restored with the name of Supreme Court of Spain and Indies and it was established the same composition. In 1864,

750-548: The pattern of the territorial division of the country carried out in 1833 . The only major change of provincial borders since that time has been the division of the Province of Canary Islands into the provinces of Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife . Historically, the provinces served mainly as transmission belts for policies enacted in Madrid, as Spain was a highly centralised state for most of its modern history. The provinces were

780-403: The performance of their official duties. Peer review is provided by the General Council of the Judiciary , a panel of senior Supreme Court judges that monitors the Supreme Court practice and operation, but the decisions of this Council are advisory and may be annulled by due process in a Supreme Court action. Neither the Constitution of 1812 or the current Spanish Constitution specify

810-531: The power of judicial review , except for the judicial revision on constitutional matters, reserved to the Constitutional Court . As set in the Judiciary Organic Act of 1985, the Court consists of the President of the Supreme Court and of the General Council of the Judiciary , the Vice President of the Supreme Court , the Chairpersons of the Chambers and an undetermined number of Magistrates. Each Magistrate of

840-457: The province to disambiguate small towns or communities whose names occur frequently throughout Spain. A small town would normally be identified as being in, say, Valladolid province rather than the autonomous community of Castile and León . In addition, organisations outside Spain use provinces for statistical analysis and policy making and in comparison with other countries including NUTS , OECD , FIPS , CIA World Factbook , ISO 3166-2 and

870-529: The system is not hierarchical but defined according to jurisdiction ( Spanish : competencias ). The body charged with government and administration of a province is the Provincial council , but their existence is controversial . As the province is defined as a "local entity" in the Constitution, the Provincial council belongs to the sphere of local government . The layout of Spain's provinces closely follows

900-464: Was transferred to the Council of State . In 1931, the Republic divided the Court into six chambers: First Chamber for Civil Law, Second Chamber of Criminal Law, Third and Fourth Chambers for Administrative Law, Fifth Chamber for Laboral Law and Sixth Chamber for Military Law, and the number of magistrates was up to 40. In the current democratic period, the Court is divided into five chambers and neither

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