Mercè Caso, new president of the TSJC
The judge was dean of the Barcelona courts and will replace Jesús María Barrientos
BarcelonaJudge Mercè Caso will be the next president of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), replacing Jesús María Barrientos, who has held the position since 2016 and whose mandate expired in 2021 due to the blockage in the renewal of the judiciary.
Caso was dean of the courts of Barcelona and in the most recent stage she presided over section 12 of the Barcelona Court. In her speech before the qualification committee of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), which was in charge of the selection process for the replacement at the head of the TSJC, Caso focused on her experience as an "expert in the special civil law" of Catalonia and also in criminal jurisdiction, in addition to her curriculum in .
In fact, her experience in the governing bodies of the judiciary made her one of the favourites for a position that was also sought by the current dean of the Barcelona courts and member of the conservative Professional Association of the Judiciary (APM), Cristina Ferrando; and the head of the first instance court 1 of Barcelona and member of Agora Judicial, founded after 1-O by a group of judges critical of the judicialisation of the Process, Guillem Soler.
For its part, Caso's candidacy was the bet of the progressive association Judges for Democracy (JJxD) to recover the presidency of the TSJC, which Miguel Ángel Gimeno lost in 2016 to Barrientos, with a CGPJ with a conservative majority.
The Minister of Justice, Ramon Espadaler, has congratulated Caso on the appointment and has expressed the Government's "predisposition" to continue working hand in hand with the TSJC in the deployment of the new efficiency law. "It will require continued contact," he said in statements to the press from the Parliament. He also thanked the dialogue that, according to him, they maintained with Barrientos during his mandate. "It is a sign of normality that since the constitution of the CGPJ the presidencies are renewed," he added.
Three decades of career
Before the evaluation committee, Caso cited Barrientos and the former president of the TSJC Maria Eugenia Alegret as her references in a speech that ended by quoting Antonio Gramsci –"In the face of the pessimism of reason, the optimism of the will"– to say that after 30 years of career she continues to believe in justice.
Born in Barcelona in 1964, Caso has been a judge since 1989. She began her career in Court 1 of Vilafranca del Penedès, and has also worked in the courts of Mataró, in Criminal Court 12 of Barcelona and in the Court of First Instance 19 of Barcelona, specializing in matters of. Between 2007 and 2012 she was part of the team of teachers at the Judicial School. She was also the dean judge of Barcelona between 2013 and 2021.
