Answer to the
REVISED SCHEME
FOR
EVALUATING JUDICIAL SYSTEMS
2004 Data

SPAIN/ESPAGNE

Please indicate main orientations for reform and concrete measures which could improve the quality and the efficiency of your judicial system:

The 28 May 2001 the two main Spanish political parties signed a State Agreement for Justice Reform which envisaged a number of measures and recommendations to improve the efficiency of the Spanish judicial system.

These included, amongst others, the elaboration of a Charter of Citizens’ Rights before the Justice System which was adopted by the congress Plenary the 22nd April 2002.

This Letter of Rights proclaimed such principles as transparency, information or paying adequate attention to citizens, and established a list of rights for users.
Also, by means of a Resolution of 28 October 2005 the Judicial Transparency Plan was adopted
and published in the Spanish official journal.

This Plan brings cause from Law 15/2003 of 26 May on the remuneration system for the judicial and prosecuting careers, which at the same time, modernised the remuneration system applicable to judges and prosecutors taking into account the degree of fulfilment of certain objectives which is linked to a series of variable salaries, a total novelty in our judicial system.

The aim of the Judicial Transparency Plan is to provide the General Courts, the Government, the Autonomous Communities, the General Council of the Judiciary and citizens themselves with an instrument of continuous, rigorous and checked information on the activity and work load of all the jurisdictional state organs, which at the same time will allow its statistical use and application in policies and processes related to the modernising of the administration of justice.

Accurate and reliable information on the Spanish Judicial System will make it possible to implement new and modern management criteria, to improve access to information about judicial activities and will contribute to planning, developing and evaluating adequate legislative policies.

To achieve all of the aforementioned aims, the Judicial Transparency Plan relies on several instruments: judicial statistics, IT and communication technologies (by unifying or implementing compatible IT systems in the different court offices, setting up internet sites of the different administrations which work in this field, setting up systems to connect and exchange of documents in proceedings and designing and implementing a system of communication between territorial judicial networks), procedural good practices, Registers of the Administration of Justice, judicial architecture, the strengthening of transparency aims in relation to the activity of Public Prosecutors and Clerks, modernising legal language, the development of citizens rights to make claims and suggestions related to incorrect functioning of the Administration of justice and international legal cooperation.