Criminal jurisdiction. Penal courts. Provinces

Criminal Courts

They are judicial bodies with jurisdiction on prosecution and resolution of crimes for which law determines deprivation of liberty of a máximum of five years and of related offences.

The courts of general jurisdiction are organized into different areas of law because of the matter of the affairs they know. The areas of law are: criminal, civil, social and contentious-administrative proceedings.

Other organizational criterium is the territory, according to the territorial scope of their competences, which can be state, regional, supra provincial, provincial, infra provincial, judicial district or municipal.

Finally, the judicial bodies are classified in unipersonal (courts) and collegiate bodies (courts of law), according to the number of persons in charge.

The highest judicial body in all areas of law is the Supreme Court with jurisdiction in all Spanish territory. Another court with jurisdiction in all of Spain is the National High Court specialised in the knowledge of criminal, contentious and social matters over an autnomous community jurisdiction.

With jurisdiction in all the Spanish territory and out of the general jurisdiction, the Constitutional Court is specialised in the knowledge of all appeals on grounds of unconstitutionality of laws and norms, of appeals for legal protection due to violation of fundamental rights and of conflicts of jurisdiction between the State and the Autonomous Communities or among these ones.

Types of judicial bodies

The following judicial bodies have seat in Catalonia:

• High Court of Justice of Catalonia
• Provincial Courts
• Senior Courts
• First Instance and Preliminary Investigations Courts
• Family Courts and Status and Legal Capacity of Natural Persons Courts
• Mercantile Courts
• Courts of the Civil Status Register exclusively
• Courts on Violence against Women
• Juvenile Courts
• Execution Courts
• Criminal Courts
• Social Courts
• Court for Contentious Administrative Proceedings
• Magistrate's Courts

Unavailable information is represented using the symbol ":". When the value is lower than that of the minimum unit to be able to estimate the statistical operation or if it effects statistical confidentiality, the symbol used is "..".