The Library and Documentation Department, under the Vice-Presidency, is designed to facilitate all the personnel of the Supreme Court: Magistrates, State Prosecutors, Magistrates of the Technical Office, Lawyers, Court Registrars and other personnel, access to the bibliographical and documentary information necessary for performing their functions and updating their knowledge, and by extension respond to all requests of the Judicial Libraries that are members of the Network.

History of the Library

The Library of the Supreme Court was created in 1939 on the initiative of the Government Secretary Javier Tornos Laffite. His idea was enthusiastically received by the then President Felipe Clemente de Diego, who inaugurated the library in 1943 in provisional premises, above the Second Chamber. It remained there until, under the Presidency of José Castán Tobeñas, it was located on the main floor, with a collection of 12,000 publications.

In 1997, as part of the remodelling of the Palace of Justice, this historical Library remained in the same location, but a Library was created to house the modern bibliographical collection, in the same site as that occupied by the Library of the Bar Association, on the main floor next to the Plenary Hall.

The Library currently has more than 35,600 monographs, and 333 journal titles, of which 150 are presently being published.

The library is part of the Network of Judicial Libraries, created by the Judicial Documentation Centre (CENDOJ), collaborating in the creation of the Collective Catalogue on the basis of the integrated library management and administration system Absysnet.

Library users

• Magistrates and State Prosecutors
• Magistrates of the Technical Office, Lawyers and Court Registrars.
• Organic units and other personnel of the Supreme Court.
• All the Judicial Libraries that are members of the network that make a request on behalf of their users.
• All the Libraries of the State Administration, to whose system it belongs.
• Previously accredited investigative personnel
  

   

   

  Documentation to be submitted to obtain accreditation:

   

  • Photocopy of National Identity Document or passport
  • Written description of the study or research topic; study or research Director; full address of the place where the applicant works or studies; telephone and e-mail
  • Cover letter of the investigator signed by the Full Professor or appropriate person from the academic, cultural or professional sphere who endorses the applicant

Historical Collection

The historical collection comprises all the monographs and journals published until 1901, reflecting the varied history of the Library. The oldest documents come from the ecclesiastical expropriation of some of the neighbouring Convents such as that of the Salesas district, the Library of the Marquis de Olivart and from private donations, outstanding among which is the Codex on parchment by the Catholic Monarchs, donated by Mr Ángel Castellanos y López in 1917.

There are 1,148 Titles which, since 2000, have been incorporated into the Collective Catalogue of State Bibliographic Heritage.

Modern Collection

The modern collection includes all the monographs and journals admitted since 1943, but it has been augmented by legacies and donations from Supreme Court Magistrates such as Mr Felipe Clemente de Diego, Mr José Castán Tobeñas, Mr Fernando Díaz Palos, Mr Dámaso Ruiz Jarabo Colomer, Mr Diego Espin Cánovas, Mr Cándido Conde-Pumpido Ferreiro, among others, and by Agreements such as that signed with the National Library of Spain, by virtue of which one of the three copies of all the law books received by Legal Deposit were transferred as a deposit once selected. This transfer was concluded in 2008.

              Consulting the catalogue