EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
The ECHR is empowered to hear complaints of human rights violations, both from individuals and from the States themselves. These complaints must meet certain requirements and respect the established legal deadlines to be admitted. Later, if the claims are admitted, the magistrates open a process to issue the respective judgment.
THE POSITION OS SAPIN REGARDING THE NUMBER OF CLAIMS
The figures have been published in a recent report of the Statistics Section of the General Council of the Judiciary. It is titled 'Spain before European courts of justice. A vision through the statistical data '.
One of the judicial valuations of Spain in the face of statistical data, is registered between 2014 and 2017. In that period of time, the country showed an average of 622 complaints per year. This translates into a rate of 0.14 per 10,000 inhabitants.
These claims data in Spain form an amount comparable to France and Belgium and quite lower compared to the rest of the States subscribing to the Agreement, which reach a rate of 0.64.
Likewise, the ratio of judgments of the CJEU to Spain for violations of rights contemplated in the Convention is less in comparison with the set of signatory States. In this way and with an approximate percentage of court decisions of 8.8 per year, Spain is placed in a similar position to countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom and Ireland. In addition, it is numerically below Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium and Austria.
On the other hand, as regards demands for non-compliance by the State, Spain is practically at the same level as the rest of the countries. It presents an average of 0.07 sentences per million inhabitants, compared to the European average of 0.06.
LAW INTERPRETATION RESOURCES
On the other hand, according to the report, the Spanish judges have introduced resources for interpretation of matters of law before the CJEU. This is a prejudicial mechanism contemplated in the Convention, and since 1986 there are 460 resources. This comes to be 5.3% of the total, with which Spain remains below the other countries taking into account its population.
It is verified that, since 2007, the two subjects that most frequently concern these interpretation demands are: consumer protection (65 applications) and social policy (63).
SPANISH JURISDICTIONAL BODIES ANALYZED
Regarding the recurring bodies of these preliminary rulings, during the last 10 years the Supreme Court has submitted the most requests: a total of 58. The Superior Courts of Justice are the next, with 37; the Provincial Courts with 29 applications, and finally, with 28, the Courts of First Instance.
These figures demonstrate the good health of the Spanish State of Law. This judicial behavior of the country, in European international organizations, confirms the full exercise of the procedural guarantees that must protect citizens.
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