Start and end dates: 1979 - present day
Volume: 29,577 boxes (December 2020)
Institutional History / Biographical Review; Archival History
Created by the Spanish Constitution of 27 December 1978, to which it dedicates its Title IX, the regulation of the Constitutional Court is the subject of Organic Law 2/1979 of 3 October (LOTC).
The first judges, appointed by Royal Decrees of 14 February 1980 (published on 22 February), were constituted on 25 February as a College of Judges, as there were initially only ten of them, given that the remaining two, to make up the twelve Court judges would have to be proposed by the General Council of the Judiciary, a constitutional body that had not been constituted at that date either . Their sessions would be presided over by Mr Manuel García-Pelayo y Alonso, as the oldest judge, and Mr Rafael Gómez-Ferrer, as the youngest judge, would act as Record Secretary. From that moment and until its establishment as a Court-which would take place on 12 July-, in accordance with the provisions of the first additional provision of the Organic Law on the Constitutional Court, the appointed judges considered, and it is so stated in the minutes of their first session,
that it is their duty […] and that they can and must carry out the preparatory work they deem appropriate to ensure the effective functioning of the Court from the moment of its creation.
At the end of the session of the Spanish Parliament, and as established in Article 9 of the Organic Law on the Constitutional Court, the judges proceeded to elect Manuel García Pelayo as President and Jerónimo Arozamena Sierra as Vice-President on 3 July 1980, proposing their appointment to His Majesty the King on 3 July. Finally, the Constitutional Court was established on 12 July 1980 before his Majesty the King, and its general registry was opened on 15 July in order to begin exercising the powers conferred on it by the Constitution and its Organic Law (Agreement of 14 July).
During the early stages, the Court met at the Centre for Constitutional Studies. Then it moved to a provisional headquarters in a building on Paseo de la Habana and, later still, in 1981, to what is
its current headquarters, on Domenico Scarlatti Street.
Its first jurisdictional decision was an order issued on 11 August 1980 in an appeal for amparo. And its first judgment was issued on 26 January 1981. From then until now, the Constitutional Court has created an extensive case-law, made up of more than 8,000 judgments and nearly 17,000 orders.
Spanish archive census (in Spanish)
Classification table (in Spanish)