- On 13 May the Council of Ministers sent to Congress the organic bill expanding the judicial and prosecutorial careers.
- It strengthens the fourth track, regulates promotion, stabilises temporary staff and improves the commercial specialisation of judges.
- For businesses, what matters is the speed and specialisation of justice, although the text still has to pass through Parliament.
On Tuesday 13 May 2025 the Council of Ministers approved sending to the Congress of Deputies the Organic Bill for the Expansion and Strengthening of the Judicial and Prosecutorial Careers. The Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, Félix Bolaños, had presented the preliminary draft on 21 January, and this step starts its parliamentary passage.
It is not yet a rule in force: it must pass through Congress and the Senate, and it may change. But it points to the direction of justice policy and completes the series of reforms of recent months, such as Organic Law 1/2025 on efficiency, which requires an attempt at agreement before suing. For business owners, the quality and speed of the courts are a real part of legal certainty.
What the bill contains
According to the Government, the text creates a fourth track in the prosecutorial career, which does not exist today, and strengthens the judicial one: one post will be called for every three in the open competition, and jurists of recognised standing with more than ten years of practice may apply. Fourth-track judges and magistrates are today fewer than 8%, against the 25% set by the Judiciary Act.
The bill also regulates automatic promotion by seniority five years after entering the judicial career, an extraordinary process to stabilise substitute judges and temporary prosecutors, a grant equal to the minimum wage for up to four years for candidates with limited income, and a nine-member Judicial Ethics Commission, with five judges and four professors chosen by the Cortes. The text is, in any case, at an early stage and may be amended by the parliamentary groups.
Commercial specialisation
Among the aims is to improve the specialisation processes for judges and magistrates in commercial matters and in violence against women, which would be placed on equal terms for promotion. For businesses, commercial specialisation matters because the commercial courts decide complex cases, such as disputes between shareholders, challenges to corporate resolutions, competition, industrial property and insolvency.
A judge with specific training and career in these matters tends to decide with more judgement and greater predictability, and having the career system recognise it can help judges remain in those posts. It is not a guarantee of speed, which also depends on resources and caseload, but it is an element that can help improve the quality of rulings. More specialisation can also shorten proceedings when cases are technical and require prior knowledge of company or insolvency law.
Prosecution autonomy and transparency
The Government links the reform of the Organic Statute of the Public Prosecution Service to the future Criminal Procedure Act, which it plans to approve in summer, and proposes a five-year term for the State Attorney General. The bill includes transparency measures, such as banning private funding of judicial associations and regulating remote voting, and is presented as an alignment with European recommendations such as those of GRECO.
These issues have an obvious political component and are likely to be debated intensely. The prudent course for anyone who depends on the courts is to follow the text through its parliamentary passage, without assuming it will be approved as sent, and meanwhile to plan disputes with the tools already in force, such as dispute-resolution methods.
Justice reforms are measured in years, but it is worth following their progress from day one.
This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it does not take anyone’s particular circumstances into account.
