TSJC President: Catalan language shouldn’t be compulsory for judges

BarcelonaShould judges in Catalonia be expected to know the Catalan language? The alarming decline in the number of sentences written in Catalan —which, as if it wasn’t low enough, dropped from 12% to 8.4% last year— was once more raised in Parliament as a result of the presence of the highest judicial authority in Catalonia, the President of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), Jesús Maria Barrientos, who was presenting the 2015 Catalan high court’s report. While admitting that the situation is "worrying", the top judge denied that the solution to the problem is to make it compulsory for judges who wish to practice in Catalonia to speak Catalan, as the government and Catalan lawyers have suggested.

At present, the ability to speak Catalan is merely a bonus, a means to earn points in the government selection of judges who wish to work in Catalan courts. Barrientos argued that if Catalan were compulsory, Catalonia would turn into a "judicial desert", since it would become an additional deterrent to judges when operating in an area which already has other negative factors, such as the heavy caseload of Catalan courts in comparison with other regions. Barrientos emphasised the Ministry of Justice’s efforts and "willingness" to improve the situation with regards to Catalan in this area and stated that the TSJC’s Board of Governors, which he chairs, can do little in this respect, aside from "correcting" specific instances, such as the warning recently issued to a judge in Olot for having dealt improperly with a lawyer who defended her right to speak Catalan in court.

Catalonia, an unpopular destination

Barrientos warned that Catalonia has become a "an unpopular destination" for judges who are undertaking a judicial career. Despite the creation of new posts, he stated that 14% of them had not been filled. According to Barrientos, language is one of the barriers, as well as the sheer amount of lawsuits that are filed in the region. Catalonia’s Minister of Justice, Carles Mundó replied that the latter, and not language, is the real reason why judges do not wish to move to Catalonia.

Mundó referred to the "linguistic emergency" affecting the Catalan justice system and lashed out at the "disappointing” response from Spain’s Ministry of Justice and the General Council of the Judiciary (GCJ) to the Council of Europe’s recommendation that they guarantee the right of citizens to be able to use either Catalan or Spanish in court. According to the Minister, both had told him that "enough was being done already." The Dean of the Bar Association of Barcelona, Oriol Rusca, stressed that "any government official who comes to Catalonia ought to be able to speak Catalan, unless we don’t believe that justice is a public service".

Politics meddles in justice

Barrientos’ comments about Catalan in the justice system were not the only ones to cause a stir in Parliament. JxSí, CSQP and the CUP questioned him about the politicization of justice, in light of the fact that Catalonia’s former president, Artur Mas, is about to stand trial for 9-N and so too is the Speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell. Barrientos blamed the political parties for contributing to this politicization by calling for prosecutions themselves in some cases. He called on them to "reconsider" their motives, in spite of it being a right recognized by law.

Barrientos also referred to the backlog of cases in the Catalan courts. Although the number of cases has fallen by 5% and the forecast for 2016 is a further decline of 30% —now that cases without a known perpetrator are automatically filed away—, most courts operate under a workload greater than is established by the GCJ. This means that the waiting time for a commercial trial is some 14 months, for example, which according to Barrientos is far longer than what "a reasonable service" ought to offer.