Spain

• Author: Pablo Gutiérrez de Cabiedes
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716208328498
• Published date: 01 March 2009
• Date: 01 March 2009
• Subject Matter: Articles

170 ANNALS, AAPSS, 622, March 2009

Compensation is widely claimed within public criminal

prosecutions, not within civil proceedings. In addition

to procedures on defending general consumer inter-

ests, Spain introduced a notable reform in 2000, pro-

viding for damages claims to be brought collectively in

consumer cases, particularly by consumer associations.

Keywords: class actions; collective actions; consumer

law; environmental law

1. Rules for Group Litigation

Class action law in Spain originated from

within consumer law, emerging in the Consumer

Protection Act, approved by Law 26/1984 of July

19, and developed after an enormous tragic

event (the mass tort “Colza oil case” in the

1980s) and then with national implementation of

EU legislation. However, legal recognition of

substantive consumer rights was not accompa-

nied by regulation of procedural statutes and

mechanisms to enforce those rights before the

courts, but only by a few sectorial legal rules.

Some academic comments criticized traditional

procedural laws and schedules as inappropriate

to provide legal protection for these new rights

and interests, but thorough analysis and jointed

proposals were missing (Gutiérrez de Cabiedes

1999). The collective litigation phenomenon

finally received statutory recognition in the Civil

Procedure Act (Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil,

hereafter LEC), passed by Law 1/2000 of January

7, which established a “class action” regime in

Spain that can be considered one of the most

advanced in Europe. However, this develop-

ment occurred without particular political

Spain

By

PABLO GUTIÉRREZ DE

CABIEDES

Pablo Gutiérrez de Cabiedes is a professor of proce-

dural law at the University of Zaragoza and an associ-

ate professor at the National University for Distance

Learning (UNED) in Pamplone.

NOTE: This work ("Spain") is done within the frame-

work of the Research Project granted by the Spanish

Government: SEJ2007-65434 / DER2008-02325

DOI: 10.1177/0002716208328498