Political politization and crisis in the renewal of the General Council of the Judicial Power

Abstract

The present work tries to carry out a legal-constitutional reading of the current crisis of the General Council of the Judiciary, going through the different interpretations (all of them —possibly— erroneous) that have been made of constitutional pluralism in the successive reforms of its election model. Likewise, it analyzes the crisis in which its internal blockade around the renovation of the Constitutional Court has derived. Through a functional perspective and interpretation, it is verified how untimely the irresponsibility of some bodies intends to be transferred to other bodies: either from politics to the Council, or from the Council to the Constitutional Court; thus offering a critical perspective to the crisis and the growing politicization of both institutions, as well as to certain legislative changes that have attacked, without going any further, the constitutional space reserved exclusively for the governing body of judges and magistrates or that seek to change majorities necessary in certain Council resolutions, as a frontal attack on pluralism.

Summary: I. INTRODUCTION: THE WRONG READING OF CONSTITU­TIONAL PLURALISM IN THE REGULATION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE JUDICIAL POWER AND ITS CONSEQUEN­TIAL AND INTERESTED LACK OF LEGITIMACY. II. A MODEL OF ELECTION VULNERABLE TO POLITIZATION: THE ETERNAL CRISIS WITHOUT A SOLUTION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE JUDICIAL POWER AS A TRIGGER OF THE CURRENT CRI­SIS. II.1. The associative pluralism and the inevitable politicization in the face of the professional pluralism of judges and magistrates in the suc­cessive reforms regarding the election of the twelve members of judicial origin. II.2. Precedents of blockade in the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary and reflection of the reciprocities between partitocracy and associative corporatism. III. A CONSTITUTIONAL READING OF THE CURRENT SCENARIO OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE JUDICIAL POWER: BALANCE AND PROSPECTS OF THE LATEST CRISIS. III.1. The new regime of powers of the General Council of the Judiciary in office, after Organic Law 4/2021, of March 29: a criticism from a constitutional perspective of the «kidnapping» of appointments by the legislator. III.2. The new dysfunctions of the General Council of the Judiciary: confrontation regarding the renewal of the Constitutional Court, resignation of the president of the General Council of the Judiciary and «double-headedness» in the judiciary. IV. CONCLUSIONS: WHAT HAPPENED TO PLURALISM? FROM CONSENSUS TO MAJORITY CONTROL