The performance of the International Relations Service in this area attempts to facilitate and mediate in international assistance and cooperation tasks in judicial processes with trans-national elements, improving the efficiency and swiftness of the response by the Spanish and foreign legal organs implicated, with a view to improve the implementation of Justice.

The activities carried out in this area may be grouped as follows:

• Activities to facilitate international legal assistance.
• Activities related to internal and external cooperation networks.
• Events and subsidies.

1) Facilitation of international legal aid.

This is one of the essential tasks that correspond by regulation to the International Relations Service. Thereby it is intended to offer direct support to all the Spanish courts, in the processes including trans-national elements in their several aspects of international jurisdiction demarcation, the application of legal cooperation instruments, international private law and foreign law, aimed at not only Spanish judges and magistrates, but also at foreign judges and magistrates, including even non judicial legal practitioners related to this subject.

Among the several activities carried out in the exercise of this function, the following may be highlighted:

• Assistance to Spanish judicial organs when carrying out an international legal aid activity.
• Active mediation. It means intervening in letters rogatory – already sent or in the process of preparation – with a view to coordinate the actions of the applying organs and the execution of the letters rogatory, mediating between the applying organ and the execution organ, to ensure that both the document of the letters rogatory and the execution one are in keeping with the prosecuting legislation of the applying State and that of the execution.
• Speeding up international legal aid applications.
• Supporting Spanish judges and magistrates in the knowledge and application of European Union Law.

 

2) Internal and External Cooperation Networks

In the area of international judicial cooperation, the role of judicial networks of cooperation is becoming everyday more relevant. These networks are conceived as a two-fold instrument, allowing the availability of detailed, direct information regarding the needs and cooperation instruments in the affected area, and also guaranteeing the existence of direct and personal contacts with those responsible for the cooperation in the different countries which make up the network, thus direct communication channels are available to access information and answers to problematic questions.

The General Council of the Judiciary has a clear vocation of active participation in these Networks, given its direct connection with Courts and Tribunals, and it is currently integrated into three networks:

• The Civil and Mercantile European Judicial Network.
• The Penal European Judicial Network.
• The Ibero-American (IberRed) Judicial Network.

At an internal level, it is the role of the Spanish Judicial Network (REJUE in Spanish) whose mission is to supply all the necessary assistance to the judicial organs that request it, for a correct response and efficient fulfilment of jurisdictional cooperation requests. In addition, the members of the REJUE carry out a mission to support the contact Points of the Civil and Mercantile European Judicial Network, the Penal European Judicial Network, the Ibero-American Judicial Network, and other existing – or that may exist in the future – organizations of analogous nature. Finally, they have a training and research mission regarding subjects of international judicial cooperation.

The Network of Especialists in European Union Law (REDUE), established upon the same premises as the Spanish Judicial Network (REJUE), seeks to provide all members of the Spanish judiciary with the appropriate support and information necessary in all matters relating to European Union law, with special attention to referrals for preliminary rulings. It has six divisions that deal with covering the various existing areas of action:

1. Civil Law (Consumer Affairs and Area of Freedom, Security and Justice in the sphere of cooperation in civil matters).
2. Commercial Law (Competition, Intellectual, Industrial and Commercial Property).
3. Criminal Law (Area of Freedom, Security and Justice in the sphere of cooperation in criminal matters).
4. Administrative (and Fiscal) Law.
5. Employment Law (Employment and Social Security).
6. General aspects of European Union Law.

 

3) Events and Subsidies

In the international legal cooperation sphere there are several events where the participation of Spanish judges and magistrates is required, both in their capacity as assistants or as deponents/consultants, or in their capacity as integrated members of work-teams, managing the International Relations Service.

Furthermore, and given the direct contact maintained by the General Council of the Judiciary at international level with multiple institutions that have several subsidy fields open, it distributes at internal level in the General Council of the Judiciary, from the International Relations Service, the existence of these, with a view to allow those responsible to determine – after their own processes of internal decision-making – their origin, and their access opportunity.