What’s in a name? Spain’s great faith in public servants
Like most civil services, Spain’s bureaucracy wants to bring order to the world and everything in it. But while in other places they seek...
La casta política and where it came from
Here’s an interesting term that’s become popular in Spain: la casta as in la casta política. Literally, it’s the “political caste”, or the old...
Aforamiento: making us unequal before the law and wreaking havoc in bilingual dictionaries
When the King of Spain Juan Carlos de Borbón decided to call it a day and abdicate, he put everyone into a frenzy, the...
Not that effective changes to Spain’s eviction law
As an occasional topic on this blog has been the wave of evictions of mortgage defaulters in Spain brought on by the financial crisis...
You gotta do what you gotta do: Classic polispeak from Spain
Here’s a fantastic bit of polispeak from a PP (Partido Popular) party rally in Spain. It’s from a couple of years back, but it’s...
The confusing and mysterious world of being an imputado
What is an imputado? So many politicians in Spain are imputados that a recently arrived Martian might assume you have to be an imputado...
What’s an escrache?
An escrache is what you do when politicians aren’t listening to your pressure group—not even to your rallies, proposals for acts of parliament and...
European court points out the bleeding obvious
The European Court of Justice yesterday ruled Spain’s eviction laws to be incompatible with EU law on unfair terms in consumer contracts. The decision...
SOS Spain: It’s the transition’s fault!
On top of the never-ending financial crisis, we now have a political crisis. The Bárcenas (ex-treasurer of the governing Partido Popular (PP)) and Ana...
“The Invention of Spain” and a prickly question
A radio show that looks at Spain’s regional diversity from a historical perspective is currently being aired on the BBC. You can listen to...
How home repossessions in Spain could have been reduced
Postscript to the posts part 1 and 2 on Spain’s home repossession nightmare There would have been fewer home repossessions in Spain if the...
The shrouded origins of the Louisiana Civil Code
In 1806, Moreau Lislet and James Brown were given the job of drafting Louisiana’s first civil code, which was to be a codification of...
Hammered into austerity
Now it’s getting depressing. Every day, it seems, the Spanish government announces new austerity measures that promise to reduce our standard of living or...
Budget or democratic deficit?
That lame third promise What most surprised me about Spain’s last general elections was one of the three promises that the PSOE candidate for...
Spain’s first constitution turns 200 hundred today
Today marks the bicentenary of the enacting of Spain’s first, and the world’s third fourth, modern constitution, known as la Pepa because it was passed...
Code of good practices for banks in Spain to stem home repossessions
Last Friday (09/03), the Spanish government announced a code of good practices for the banking sector to stem the tide of home repossessions (which...
Juries in Spain and the President of Valencia’s new suits
Trial by jury In the common law world, trial by jury is closely associated with the notion of receiving a fair trial. Despite its...
Postscript to my post on the Spanish media’s support of Contador
At the end of a discussion on Spain’s reaction to the Nadal skit on French TV on the radio programme La Ventana (La Cadena...
Contador: guilty until proven innocent for the CAS but always innocent in the Spanish media
I can understand why cycling fans, especially Spanish cycling fans, defend the innocence of cyclist Alberto Contador, who was yesterday banned for two years...
Spanish Constitution founding father talks about the royals
Here’s an interesting interview with Gregorio Peces-Barba, one of the authors of the Spanish Constitution, who seems to have a bit of a blind...
Spain’s housing repossession nightmare and dación en pago — Part 2
(…continued from Spain’s housing repossession nightmare and dación en pago — Part 1.) Landmark case In November 2010, a judge in Navarre found “that...
Spain’s home repossession nightmare and dación en pago — Part 1
The financial crisis—the one that seemed like old news a long time ago but is still here, at least in Spain, has triggered a...
Hardline election promises and translating “delito” and “falta”
This week, Duran i Lleida, CiU’s candidate for the Spanish general election to be held this month, announced that one of his party’s election...
A plain Spanish campaign in Woolf’s clothing?
A Spanish government committee recently made a series of recommendations to legal bodies and practitioners—including the Spanish Bar Association, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and...
One express reform to the constitution to go please
The Spanish Parliament recently voted to reform the constitution to impose a deficit cap on public budgets and so adopt the “golden rule” that...
