Spain¶
The Spanish cases show the courts drawn into the conflict they are meant to settle. A law passed as the price of a government asks judges to absorb a secession conflict, and a prosecution of the government’s chief prosecutor is read by each side as a verdict on the other. The word lawfare marks the courts as a partisan actor whatever they decide, so the judiciary loses the neutrality that protects it.
The clerk’s briefs¶
From the clerks, for the Patrician’s eyes
Worth a look. Judges become targets for whichever side loses, and their rulings are read as moves rather than law. Prosecutors close to the government learn that the courts will examine them, and judges who rule against it learn they may be called partisan. A foreign government wanting either side discredited need only amplify the accusation. Restraint from party leaders in describing verdicts, or a reform of how senior judges are chosen that both sides accept, would lower the temperature.
November 2025: The attorney general convicted¶
On 20 November 2025 a majority of the Supreme Court convicted the attorney general, Alvaro Garcia Ortiz, of leaking confidential information about Alberto Gonzalez Amador, the partner of the Madrid regional president Isabel Diaz Ayuso, and barred him from public office for two years. Catalan News reported that many experts described the ruling as an example of lawfare. Garcia Ortiz resigned, thanking the Socialist-led government for standing by him throughout. The clerks note that the head of the prosecution service was removed by the courts, and that the verdict was argued over as a verdict on the courts.
October 2024: The attorney general investigated¶
On 16 October 2024 the Supreme Court unanimously opened an investigation into the attorney general, Alvaro Garcia Ortiz, for alleged revelation of secrets, the first time a head of the prosecution service had been charged. The case concerns a press note from the prosecution service that disclosed an email in which the lawyer of Alberto Gonzalez Amador, the partner of the Madrid regional president, offered to admit two tax offences. The clerks note that the government’s chief prosecutor is now under investigation by the court his office appears before, over a leak about an opponent’s household.
May 2024: The amnesty passes¶
On 30 May 2024 Congress passed the amnesty law by 177 votes to 172, over the Senate’s veto. It covers people investigated, charged or sentenced in connection with the independence movement, back to November 2011, including those sentenced in 2019 for the referendum. It was drafted in 2023 as “a prerequisite for backing Pedro Sanchez as Prime Minister”. The clerks note that the courts must now apply a law that was the price of a government.