There are procedural reforms that are simply patches to correct deficiencies in the system or that fill gaps that practice has revealed. Others, however, are so far-reaching that they forever transform the face of litigation or the judicial organization. As if it were a gift from the Three Wise Men, a January 7, 25 years ago, the legislator gave us a Law that marked a before and after in the history of Spanish procedural law.
What impact did Law 1/2000 on Civil Procedure have?
La 1 / 2000, in fact, opted for a civil process model with an antagonistic profile to that which governed in Spain since… 1881! The change that the law proposed in the ways and manners of Civil Justice and in the habits of the professionals who operated around it (Judges, lawyers, attorneys, court clerks) was such that a vacatio de one year until its entry into force. Our team of Litigation from then on, with Enrique Armijo y Carlos Moran Among them, he witnessed the impact that the publication of this Law represented and the efforts of some and others to familiarize themselves with its articles and to resolve the doubts and questions that it raised.
All those who at that time were watching over the defense of whats industrial and intellectual property rights, having overcome initial resistance to a paradigm shift, unreservedly applauded the new system. The law was betting on a Anglo-Saxon court process model based on principles (orality, immediacy, concentration) which fit very well with the demands of the lawsuits regarding patents, brands o Copyright. "It was a year of anxiety, illusions, fears and hopes before the emergence of the new ordinary trial in the forum., reminds us Enrique Armijo.
It cannot be forgotten that the Law affected all spheres of industrial and intellectual property claims: the introduction of a general process of preliminary proceedings, the explicit regulation of precautionary measures with and without hearing, the ordering of expert evidence. And a particularly exciting procedural process. “How many sleepless nights we have to deal with the challenges of oral proceedings during the preliminary hearing and the trial!”, confesses Carlos Moran.
How the Law has evolved since 2000
Although the Law was presented as the definitive modernization of the Spanish civil process and enjoyed an indisputable technical perfection, time has passed and the reforms have followed their course. Suffice it to say that in these 25 years Law 1/2000 It has been modified no less than 50 times. The last one as recent as it occurred with the beginning of the year and in a period of judicial vacation, treacherously: the Organic Law 1/2025, of January 2, on measures regarding the efficiency of the Public Justice Service. But this is another story. Let us pay, for the moment, a nostalgic tribute to Law 1/2000.
Enrique Armijo (Partner of the area legal of Elzaburu) and Carlos Moran (Partner of the area legal from Elzaburu)
