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Solicitor General of Spain

Spanish state body From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The Solicitor General of the State is a senior official of the Ministry of Justice who directs the Legal Service of the Spanish government and represents it when necessary before the courts of justice. The solicitor general is highest legal advisor to the central government, its agencies, and all State institutions or other public administration within its jurisdiction.

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The solicitor general of the state is appointed by the monarch, on the advice of the minister of justice, and after hearing the Council of Ministers. To be appointed solicitor general its needed first to be a State lawyer. According to the law, in case of vacancy, absence or illness, it is the minister of justice who decides who should substitute him, if he do not do so, the law establishes that the senior director-general must to replace him, in this case it would be the director-general for advisory services.

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Solicitor General's Office

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The Office of the Solicitor General (Spanish: Abogacía General del Estado) is a department of the Ministry of Justice which assumes the direction of the State Legal Service; in such concept, corresponds to it the direction, coordination and inspection of the services entrusted to State attorneys, ensuring in all cases the maintenance of the principle of unity of doctrine in the exercise of the powers attributed to them.[1]

The Solicitor General's Office is assisted by a Technical Cabinet, two directorates-general, four deputy director-generals, and the different offices of the State Solicitor's before courts and other bodies, namely:

  • The Solicitor General's Technical Cabinet, which is responsible for supporting the solicitor general.
  • The Directorate-General for Advisory Services, which is responsible for the legal advice of the General State Administration and its different agencies, including State-owned companies, as well as giving legal advice to the autonomous communities and local administrations.
  • The Directorate-General for Contentious Services, which is responsible for the representation and defense of the State and its autonomous agencies, as well as other public bodies and entities; state-owned companies and foundations with state participation; autonomous communities, local administrations and the constitutional bodies before any jurisdictions and jurisdictional organs, to the conflicts of jurisdiction and conflicts and questions of competence and to the preliminary and extrajudicial procedures in which the State is interested. It also corresponds to give legal advice on claims prior to the civil and labor court, in cases in which the opinion of the deputy general directorate is requested, and of the files for the payment of costs to be condemned by the State when it arises controversy. Likewise, it is responsible for ensuring the effectiveness of the principle of unity of doctrine in the scope of contentious functions, formulating general criteria for action in the trial for State attorneys.
  • The Deputy Directorate for Human and Material Resources of the Solicitor General's Office, which assits the solicitor general regarding the internal policies of human and material resources, as well as those related to economic and budgetary affairs.
  • The Deputy Directorate-General for Constitutional and Human Rights, which is responsible for the representation and defense of the State and its autonomous agencies as well as other bodies of the State in trial before the Constitutional Court. In the same way, it will develop the advice on procedural or substantive issues derived from the approach or processing of constitutional procedures; as well as, in particular, the advice, when requested by the Government or any of its members, on the constitutionality of the draft bills of any rank that have to be submitted for approval, and the legal examination and report, to petition of the Government or of any of its members, of the dispositions or resolutions of the autonomous communities that may be challenged before the Constitutional Court. Its also in charge of the representation of Spain before the European Court of Human Rights and the legal advice about European Convention on Human Rights issues and the legal advice about any other international treaty about human rights signed by Spain.
  • The Deputy Directorate-General for European Union and International Affairs, which is responsible for the representation and defense of the Kingdom of Spain before the judicial bodies of the European Union and before the International Criminal Court. It also has competences, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in legal assistance in the infringement proceedings opened by the European Commission against Spain. It also offers legal assistance in the field of European Union law.
  • The Deputy Directorate-General for Internal Audit and Knowledge Management, which is responsible for the coordination of relations between State Solicitors Offices that perform advisory functions and State Solicitors Offices that perform contentious functions. Likewise, it corresponds to this Deputy General Directorate the promotion of research works and the organization of activities aimed at the knowledge and dissemination of legal issues of national or international scope, as well as the organization of training and improvement activities for the civil servants of the State Lawyers Corps.

The following officies are also part of the Office of the Solicitor General:

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History

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The Solicitor General's Office in Spain have received many names. In the year of its creation, 1849, the Office was called Directorate-General of the Contentious of the Ministry of Finance or Directorate-General of the Contentious of the Public Treasury. This denomination was maintained until 1854, when it started to be called General Advisor of the Ministry of Finance until 1877, when recovered its original name by being called Directorate-General of the Contentious of the State.

It remained that way until 1985, when the office was renamed Directorate-General of the State Legal Service. In 2000 it was renamed as "Office of the Solicitor General of the State-Directorate of the State Legal Service" and, since 2022, the name has been simplified to Office of the Solicitor General of the State.

In its origins, the solicitor general depended on the Minister of Finance and it required that its members to be students of law, administrative science and have experience in the Public Treasury's area. Its functions were limited to the powers of the Ministry of Finance and were responsible for issuing legal reports and supervising the prosecutors' actions in the courts.[2]

In the reform of 1881, that the State solicitors (or attorneys) assumed the two functions that they have today: the advisory function and the contentious function, in addition to the representation function.[3]

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List of Solicitors General

  Progressive Party
  Moderate Party
  Liberal Union
  Constitutional Party
  Liberal Party
  Conservative Party
  Military
  Royalist
  Coalition
  Radical Republican Party
  Republican Action
  Republican Left
  Republican Union
  Independent
  National Movement
  Democratic Centre Union
  Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
  People's Party
Status
  Denotes service as acting Attorneys General
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References

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