The two Catalans who are candidates to be judges in the Strasbourg Court
Professor Jordi Nieva-Fenoll and CGPJ member Carlos Hugo Preciado compete with 26 more candidates in the Spanish selection process
MadridSince March 11, there has been an open selection process to choose the next Spanish judge at the European Court of Human Rights. It is a call that has opened a new dispute between the judiciary and the Spanish government, there are about twenty applicants and interviews have already begun. Among those who have applied for this call, according to various sources consulted by ARA, is the Catalan jurist Jordi Nieva-Fenoll (Barcelona, 1970). This well-known professor of procedural law in Catalonia, along with the member of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) Carlos Hugo Preciado (who has challenged the procedure in the National High Court), are the two Catalans of whom this newspaper is aware among the 28 applicants who have submitted credentials to reach Strasbourg. A list that is not public at the moment.
Nieva is a professor of procedural law at the University of Barcelona and also teaches in civil and criminal law. He has been a visiting professor at various foreign universities such as Münster, Würzburg, Bologna, Lyon, Libres de Colombia, Pontificia de Valparaíso, or Antofagasta. He is a well-known figure in Catalonia because he collaborates with various media as a regular jurist and, therefore, has a public outreach aspect to his legal work. However, he is also the author of 16 books, many of them manuals of procedural law, and 90 scientific articles, according to his UB biography. At the same time, he has also participated as a speaker at international conferences in the legal field and is the founder, along with Michele Taruffo, of the collection Proceso y Derecho from the prestigious academic publishing house Marcial Pons.
Regarding Preciado (Tarragona, 1969), he was a magistrate of the Social Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) before joining the CGPJ as a progressive member. He entered the judicial career in 2007 and also served in the courts of Valls and Reus, in addition to being the coordinating lawyer for the social area of the Technical Cabinet of the Supreme Court. Despite having been promoted by Sumar to reach the CGPJ, at the beginning of his term he has distanced himself on several occasions from the bloc and has declared himself an "independent progressive." That is, it is a very different profile from Nieva's, since while he comes from academia, Preciado comes from legal practice in a jurisdictional body. Despite this, he also has a university background: he is a doctor of law from the UNED with an award-winning thesis on fundamental rights in employment contracts, in addition to having also taught at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona.
According to the European Convention on Human Rights, there are two ways to become a judge of the ECHR: either to meet the requirements for the exercise of other judicial functions – for example, to be magistrates of state courts, as in the case of Preciado – or to be jurists of recognized competence, that is, a person learned in law. This latter path is the one through which Jordi Nieva-Fenoll intends to enter, following his professional career in the legal field.
Regarding the bases advertised by the Spanish government, it is made clear that to be elected one must excel in the command of English or French and, at least, have passive knowledge of one of the two. They require: "Candidates must hold Spanish nationality, be under 65 years of age on August 8, 2025, and demonstrate a high level of knowledge of one of the two official languages of the court." They add, in parallel, that they will take into account the guidelines of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe when choosing, which recommend candidates with a deep knowledge of national and international law, as well as with "moral standing" and a "desirable practice" of jurisdictional exercise. As evaluation criteria, they state that they will consider knowledge of public law, the functions of an ECHR judge, or the legal system of other member states. In this regard, some consulted jurists consider that the requirements are too broad and should be more specific.
Who chooses: the most controversial part
Beyond the candidates, of which there are 28, and the selection criteria, the controversy lies in who is part of the selection committee that has been decided by the Spanish government. Various legal sources consulted are critical because they consider that there is too much weight of executive positions and, in fact, the member of the CGPJ Carlos Hugo Preciado has challenged the call for this reason. It should be noted that the selection committee is made up of five members: the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Diego Martínez Belío; the Secretary of Justice, Manuel Olmedo; the Undersecretary of the Presidency, Alberto Herrera; in addition to a person appointed by the General Council of the Judiciary, Gema Espinosa, and another jurist of "recognized competence", Paz Andrés Sáenz de Santa María. In other words, the Spanish government's positions form a majority.
Be that as it may, this selection committee will not have the final say. They will choose a shortlist that will be evaluated by another specific committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and, finally, it will be voted on in the plenary session which is the best candidate to be the Spanish judge in Strasbourg. The change must materialize in the spring of next year, when the term of the current conservative judge María Elósegui expires.