It had not been long since the Constitutional Court's ruling on the new Statute, when Professor Marc Carrillo, a professor of constitutional law at the UPF and a great expert in the contemporary legal history of Spain, warned us, in a work meeting of the Research Group on the Francoist and Democratic Eras (GREFD-UAB; currently, Research Group on Dictatorships and Democracies, GReDD-UAB), that everything that referred to the Catalan language in the public sphere had come out profoundly affected. In non-legal terms, in this area of the TC ruling, the most radical and retrograde Spanish nationalism had prevailed, the kind that has always maintained, since imperial times (returned to the present and for which King Felipe VI does not have to apologize because, as a very beloved novelist in Spain wrote, his predecessors brought them urban planning, sewers, and something else) until our days (more than 500 years!), that the nation is founded on language and religion; that is, the Spanish language and the most rancid Catholicism. With Catholicism fallen into disgrace, the language remained (and remains). The final result was a foregone conclusion.

A simple question to ChatGPT (“What is the approximate number of unfavorable rulings against the Catalan language that have occurred during the democratic period?”) gives us a rather long and, above all, disheartening answer. The AI does not dare to give a specific number, but it distinguishes: if we stick to rulings that have limited Catalan normalization policies, especially in the educational and administrative spheres, the figure ranges between twenty and thirty rulings against the Catalan language. However, if we broaden the focus (which must be broadened) to interlocutory orders and resolutions considered minor (precautionary measures, enforcement of judgments, etc.), the figure easily rises to “diverse dozens” of judicial decisions against Catalan issued during the democratic period, that is, from 1978 onwards. The areas affected by rulings that limit the use of Catalan are, for the most part, the educational system, followed by regional linguistic regulations, linguistic requirements for civil servants, institutional use, and signage. In summary, a sustained judicial effort over time to minimize or erase the presence of the Catalan language from public spaces, especially in schools. That linguistic diversity be politically attacked, vilified in the media, and pursued judicially and even policed almost as if it were a crime, is an unacceptable situation for anyone with a minimum of democratic sensibility and common sense. It is, plain and simple, a disgrace.Judges are people who have been able to win the competitive examinations to become judges, and therefore are perfectly capable of understanding that Catalan is the language of Catalonia, with all that this entails. It is another matter that they decide not to accept it. The fallacious reasoning that attempts to present Spanish as if it were a language in danger due to linguistic immersion in Catalan is exactly the same (equally unacceptable) as those that say that feminist demands are a danger to men, or that the integration of immigrants endangers the continuity of Western cultures and societies. They are expressions of supremacism, and this is what the judges who issue jurisprudence against an official language, as fully deserving of respect as any other, do: spit supremacism with a stroke of the pen. To use justice and place it at the service of a political ideology, in this case that of state Spanish nationalism.

From this ruling by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia against Catalan (I say “against Catalan” because it seeks to prevent our language from being “armored” in classrooms) a clear conclusion can be drawn: only a state of its own guarantees the legal protection that any official language has in its own territory. It shouldn't necessarily be this way: in a truly plurinational state, Catalan would be as Spanish as Castilian. But that's not the case, and I don't think I'm mistaken if I say it never will be. The only language we have a constitutional duty to know is Castilian. This is proclaimed by Article 3 of the 1978 Constitution, which at the end also states that “the different linguistic modalities of Spain” are a richness “that will be the object of special respect and protection”. Well, it's good that they protect Catalan!  

The Department of Education has said that the court ruling this Monday against Catalan will not lead to any change in the day-to-day running of Catalan classrooms. But it has fallen short: in reality, it will not lead to any change in the day-to-day running of the Catalan language either, because the ruling in question is another chapter in the books that contain three centuries of prohibitions, persecutions, fines, and limitations of Catalan, dictated by Spain.

New blow from justice to Catalan in schools. This Monday, the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has ordered the provisional execution of the ruling it issued last September, in which it annulled a dozen articles of the decree to protect Catalan in schools. A norm that Pere Aragonès's government approved in 2024 and that only a month later the courts suspended it, which is why it had never been applied. In fact, sources from the Department of Education have assured that Monday's ruling will not mean any change in the day-to-day of Catalan classrooms.

The fifth chamber of the Administrative Litigation of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has issued a precautionary measure that obliges the Parliament of Catalonia to display the flag of Spain outside the building in an "immediate and permanent" manner. The decision comes in light of the fact that, until now, the state flag and the Catalan flag only flew together on the facade on plenary days, as acknowledged by the report of the chamber's own legal counsel.

The Fifth Chamber of the Administrative Court of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has issued an injunction requiring the Parliament of Catalonia to display the Spanish flag on the exterior of its building "immediately and permanently." The decision comes in response to the fact that, until now, the Spanish and Catalan flags were only flown together on the façade on days when plenary sessions were held, as acknowledged in the report prepared by the Parliament's own legal counsel.

The Parliament cannot require drivers to prove an intermediate level of Catalan, but at most an elementary level. This is the response given by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) to the request of Convivencia Cívica Catalana, which asked to annul the bases of a call for positions for these official vehicle drivers who transport high-ranking officials of the Generalitat. Specifically, the Spanish nationalist entity wanted to eliminate the requirement for candidates to demonstrate a B2 level of Catalan.

It took three years for the courts to recognize that Gambian Saynei Kanteh was indeed a minor, after the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office ruled that he was over eighteen and therefore no longer entitled to public protection. He was immediately removed from the guardianship of the Directorate General for Child Welfare (DGAIA, now the DGPPIA) and expelled from the center where he lived. "I knew he wasn't lying, that I was seventeen, and I trusted that sooner or later..." I would have the papers"," he states.

The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) is the first in Spain to rule that a teacher's sick leave due to adverse effects from a defective batch of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines should be considered a workplace accident. This was explained on Monday by the Col·lectiu Ronda cooperative of lawyers, who represented the secondary school teacher, a substitute. The teacher was vaccinated before most of the population, in February 2021, due to her status as an essential worker, along with security forces and healthcare personnel. Even so, given her age group, she would not have been eligible until June of that year. A few weeks after the campaign began, authorities issued a safety alert and halted the supply of the ABV5300 vaccine batch from the British manufacturer, as some patients who had received the dose had suffered severe cases of thrombosis. 228,000 vaccines from that batch arrived in Spain.

The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has upheld the conviction of Xavier Padial, the confessed pedophile of Barberà del VallèsSentenced to 57 years in prison for repeatedly torturing and sexually abusing two of his cousins, both minors, and forcing one of them into prostitution. "We do not believe that the compensation awarded makes up for what the victims have suffered at the hands of the defendant, and much less that it is disproportionate," states the ruling, which ARA has accessed, and which confirms one of the highest compensations for sexual violence ever awarded by the State. The court awarded €80,000 to the other girl—who suffered abuse from the age of 6 or 7 and prostituted herself under his influence—and €80,000 to the third girl, who also suffered sexual abuse. The court thus rejected the appeal filed by Padial's defense, who also produced child pornography with material obtained from sexual encounters with Laura. "There is no disproportionality whatsoever. The facts are so serious, and their consequences so grave, that we can only agree with the court's decision," reads the document that upholds the sentence handed down in June 2025 by Section 21 of the Provincial Court of Barcelona. During the trial, held in October 2024, the prosecution held the defendant responsible for the "torture" that Laura suffered for 11 years. The harrowing account of the young woman, who testified when she was 23, and who had received threats and coercion, led the prosecution to conclude that Padial had completely "brainwashed" his cousin, turning her into "a toy in the defendant's hands." The victim recounted to the court how, before meeting with clients, her cousin, who was twice her age, would "prepare" and sexually abuse her: "I had to have sex with him to perform well with the clients."

The Social Court No. 14 of Barcelona has ruled in favor of the CGT union in a lawsuit concerning the rest periods of TMB (Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona) workers. The union filed a complaint almost two years ago challenging the shift system of the Catalan capital's public transport company, deeming it "illegal, inhumane, and dangerous for occupational health." The court has now ruled that all workers in the seven groups affected by the case (drivers, information agents, workshop and warehouse staff, among others) are entitled to a minimum weekly rest period of 48 uninterrupted hours. According to the ruling, which ARA has obtained, this amount is calculated as either 36 hours of weekly rest and 12 hours of non-overlapping daily rest; or 84 hours of rest over 14 days. The ruling—dated June 2024 but only recently made public—also emphasizes the requirement of a 12-hour daily rest period between work shifts.

"Until". This preposition—and the different ways it's interpreted—is what prevented Maria and many of her classmates from continuing their studies this school year. In fact, the Generalitat's interpretation of this preposition has meant that, for some time now, students with disabilities have seen their time in special education centers shorter than they expected.

Last week, Catalan marked the day of September 11th not only because it has become a consensus demand of the majority of the forces in the Parliament, but also because the day before, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) annulled the decree on the language regime that Pere Aragonès' government passed to prevent the application of the castle. A resolution that the Government has already announced it will appeal and that put pro-language parties and organizations on a war footing. However, the issue will not emerge from the limbo in which it finds itself in any short period of time, since this entire debate is pending, in reality, on what the Constitutional Court (TC) decides on both norms (a law and a decree law). They came out ahead in 2022 to try to protect the linguistic immersion model and from which the decree overturned by the TSJC was derived.

As timely as a birthday present, the High Court of Justice (TSJC) had the courtesy to coincide the national holiday with the announcement of the repeal of a large part of the decree that sought to protect Catalan in the classroom.

To celebrate and encourage the Diada with coherence, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia "has annulled a large part of the decree on the linguistic regime that the government of Pere Aragonès approved to protect Catalan as the vehicular language in schools and prevent the implementation of linguistic percentages." we read in the ARAThe Assembly for a Bilingual School group (which presents itself to the world with a not-very-bilingual name) demanded its repeal and has succeeded. The president of the Generalitat (Catalan government) has said: "We will not allow anyone to make political use of the language, because that is the worst thing you can do to promote coexistence. Catalan must continue to be an inclusive, unique, and transversal language for the country and the school."

More and more cases are arriving at the Catalan courts, and although they are also resolving more, the incoming workload exceeds what they can handle. For example, despite the fact that many more cases were resolved in 2024 than in previous years and the courts closed 96.78% of the cases they received, the year ended with more pending proceedings than there were in January. At the end of the year, there were still 732,408 pending cases. To resolve this situation, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) estimates that Catalonia needs an additional 187 judge positions (154) and magistrate positions (33) to optimally cover the workload facing the country's courts.

Measures exemplary for the ultra accused of inciting social networks Hunt against the North African community in the Murcian town of Torre PachecoThe judge on duty has sent Christian LF, the leader of the xenophobic supremacist movement, to preventive detention. Sport Them Now The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) reported this Thursday. The judge of Mataró's first investigating court has ordered the detention of the accused without bail. to the 28-year-old, who is charged with inciting hatred, belonging to an illicit association for committing a discriminatory crime, and illegal possession of weapons.

The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has sentenced the foundation that promotes the Sagrada Família for firing an employee the day after the end of her protective period due to having a child. The judges ruled that the termination of her contract was void and that the foundation's conduct violated her fundamental rights to equality and freedom from discrimination. The ruling emphasizes that the 12 months following the birth of a child guarantee special protection, and during this period, dismissals without objective cause are void and not merely unfair.

As the 90th anniversary of the Civil War approaches, a new battle is being fought on the Ebro River. Fortunately, it's a longer one, and only a judicial one. A battle taking place in the courtrooms to remove or maintain the Francoist monument erected in Tortosa to honor the fascists who achieved victory. The case has reached the Supreme Court, which will have the final say.