Some procedural reforms are merely stopgap measures designed to correct deficiencies in the system or to fill gaps that have been revealed by judicial practice. Others, however, are so far-reaching that they forever transform the nature of litigation or the judicial system. As if it were a Three Kings’ Day gift, on January 7, 25 years ago, the legislature presented us with a law that marked a turning point in the history of Spanish procedural law.
What impact did Law 1/2000 on Civil Procedure have?
Law 1/2000, in fact, adopted a model of adversarial civil procedure that stood in stark contrast to the one that had governed Spain since … 1881! The shift the law proposed in the methods and practices of the civil justice system—and in the working habits of the professionals involved (judges, attorneys, court representatives, and court clerks)—was so significant that a one-year transition period was required before it took effect. Our Litigation team at the time, led by Enrique Armijo and Carlos Morán among them, witnessed the impact of this law’s enactment and the efforts of all parties to familiarize themselves with its provisions and to resolve the doubts and uncertainties it raised.
All those who, at that time, were committed to defendingindustrial and intellectual property rights—once they had overcome their initial resistance to a paradigm shift—applauded the new system without reservation. The law embraced an Anglo-Saxon model of principle-based litigation (oral proceedings, immediate participation, and concentration) that aligned very well with the demands of litigation involving patents, trademarks, or copyrights.“It was a year of anxieties, hopes, fears, and expectations as the new ordinary trial procedure made its debut in the courts,” Enrique Armijo recalls.
We must not forget that the Law affected all areas of industrial and intellectual property claims: the introduction of a general preliminary proceedings process, the explicit regulation of injunctive relief with and without a hearing, and the organization of expert testimony. And a particularly exciting procedural process. “What sleepless nights we had facing the challenges of oral proceedings at the preliminary hearing and the trial!” admits Carlos Morán.
How the Law Has Evolved Since 2000
Although the Act was presented as the definitive modernization of the Spanish civil procedure system and was unquestionably technically sound, time has passed and reforms have continued to unfold. Suffice it to say that over the past 25 years , Act 1/2000 has been amended no fewer than 50 times. The most recent amendment came as recently as the start of the year, during the judicial recess, and was introduced surreptitiously: Organic Law 1/2025, dated January 2, on measures to improve the efficiency of the Public Justice Service. But that is another story. For now, let us pay a nostalgic tribute to Law 1/2000.
Enrique Armijo (Partner in the Legal Department at Elzaburu) and Carlos Morán (Partner in the Legal Department at Elzaburu)