SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Gabriel Rodríguez-Ramos, RODRIGUEZ RAMOS ABOGADOS
1. Legal Framework 1.1 International Conventions
1.4 Recent Key Amendments to National Legislation Due to the instability of the legislative branch, there have been no amendments to substantive criminal law, as no consensus has been reached in this regard. Some changes have been introduced to the criminal process by the LO 1/2025 (published 2 January 2025, and entered into force on 3 April 2025). • Some courts have been renamed, from: (a) Juzgados de Instrucción , to Sección de Instrucción de los Tribunales de Instancia (b) Juzgados Centrales de Instrucción , to Sección de Instrucción del Tribunal Central de Instancia (c) Juzgados de lo Penal , to Sección de lo Penal del Tribunal de Instancia and (d) Juzgado Central de lo Penal , to Sección de lo Penal del Tribunal Central de Instancia . • Plea agreement regulation has been completed (Articles 655 and 787 ter LECr). • Preliminary hearing previous to the trial (Article 785 LECr), has been legislatively settled (it was a com - mon practice in complex cases) to solve: (a) jurisdiction of the court; (b) plea agreements; (c) violation of any fundamental right; (d) grounds for suspending the trial; (e) nullity causes; and (f) content, purpose or invalidity of the proposed evidence. • Provisional enforcement of the civil liability orders contained in the criminal judgment (Article 989 LECr). 2. Bribery and Corruption Elements 2.1 Bribery Bribery is defined as follows: • with reference to the national public sector, as any gift, favour, or retribution of any kind, offer or prom - ise (Articles 419, 420 and 422 CC); and • with reference to the private sector and interna - tional public procurement, as unjustified benefit or advantage of any nature (Articles 286 bis and 286 ter CC).
The international conventions relating to anti-bribery and anti-corruption to which Spain is a signatory are as follows. • United Nations Convention against Corruption, signed on 16 September 2005 and ratified on 19 June 2006. • Council of Europe: (a) Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173) – signed on 10 May 2005, ratified on 28 April 2010 and entered into force on 1 August 2010. (b) Additional Protocol to the Criminal Law Con - vention on Corruption (ETS 191) – signed on 27 May 2009, ratified on 21 January 2011 and entered into force on 1 May 2011. (c) Civil Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 174) – signed on 10 May 2005, ratified on 16 De - cember 2009 and entered into force on 1 April 2010. • Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development – Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Busi - ness Transactions, ratified on 14 January 2000 and entered into force on 14 March 2000. 1.2 National Legislation All the offences linked to corruption behaviours are included in the Spanish Criminal Code. 1.3 Guidelines for the Interpretation and Enforcement of National Legislation There are no official guidelines for interpreting and enforcing national legislation in Spain. Due to the structure of legal sources within the Span - ish Rule of Law, the rulings of the Second Chamber (Criminal) of the Supreme Court serve as the only valid reference guidelines. Rodriguez Ramos Abogados publishes, with Wolters Kluwer, a comprehensive guide updated monthly, which includes all relevant and updated rulings of the Supreme Court necessary for interpreting the entire Spanish Criminal Code (CC).
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