1985 Law 29/2015, of July 30, 2015 on international legal cooperation in civil matters

The Law 29/2015, of July 30, 2015, on international cooperation in civil matters (the “Law”) was published in the Official State Gazette on July 31, 2015 and enters into force on August 20, 2015. It is an important new for the Spanish legal system in so far it is the first time an arrangement for international legal cooperation has been brought into the Spanish domestic law.

Applying in civil and commercial matters regardless of the type of court, including civil liability resulting from a criminal offense and employment contracts, this new law will acts as a general framework and come into place on a subsidiary basis to European Law and International Treaties as well as to specific sectorial legislation such as the Insolvency Law, the International Adoption Law, the Civil Registry Law, the Consumers and Users Law, the Arbitration Law, the Mortgage Law and Mortgage Regulations, the Commercial Code and Commercial Registry Regulations and the rules of international private law in the Voluntary Jurisdiction Law, which will have primacy, without precluding the subsidiary application of this Law’s articles.

Taking on board the general cooperation obligation emanating from general international law, this Law starts out from a broad definition of international legal cooperation and from a general principle favorable to the development of international legal cooperation, even in the case of absence of reciprocity, but with an option to refuse cooperation where there is a repeated refusal of cooperation or a legal prohibition on providing it.

The Law is laid out in a Preliminary Title with a number of general provisions and five more titles defining the procedures for notification and service of judicial and nonjudicial documents; the taking and obtaining of evidence; the proof of foreign law; the information on foreign law; international lis pendens and related cases; and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and authentic instruments and the exequatur procedure. It repeals Articles 951 through 958 of the 1881 Civil Procedure Law to design a new process geared towards reflecting the current trends of legal doctrine and the most recent new legislation, this last point being one of the key elements of the Law.

Regarding its final provisions, it is remarkable final provision two which amends the Civil Procedure Law 1/2000, of January 7, 2000, to adapt it and facilitate the implementation of Regulation (EU) 1215/2012 of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters and Regulation (EU) 650/2012 of July 4 2012, on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions and acceptance and enforcement of authentic instruments in matters of succession and on the creation of a European certificate of Succession (in relation to this certificate it also amends the Mortgage Law in final provision one). And, lastly, final provision three amending Law 5/2012, of July 6 , 2010 on mediation in civil matters, in relation to the enforcement of cross-border mediation agreements and a final provision four amending Law 2/2014, of March 25, 2014 on the Action to theForeign Service of the State to recognize the official nature of translations of documents by Spain’s representation organizations abroad or done by foreign representation organizations in Spain of authentic instruments in their own country.

1. General provisions

2. General international legal cooperation system

3. Notification and service of judicial and nonjudicial documents

4. The taking and obtaining of evidence

5. On proof of foreign law

6. Information on foreign law

7. Lis pendens and related cases

8. On the recognition and enforcement of foreign court judgments and authentic instruments, on the exequatur procedure and registration at Public Registries

9. Measures to facilitate the implementation in Spain of regulation (EU) 1215/2012 and of regulation (EU) 650/2012