What Does it Take to Become a Judge in Spain? An Informal First Step into a Formal World

Abstract

One of the most prominent informal institutions that affect access to the judicial career is the system of coaching to prepare for the state exams to access the judiciary. This Article focuses on the relevance and impact of that informal institution, together with other informal aspects that affect the process of judicial selection. It is claimed that the system of preparation for judicial state exams has a crucial impact on the composition of the judiciary. Its informality and peculiar features however raise important democratic concerns due to its lack of transparency, the important economic barriers it imposes, and its longstanding impact on judicial culture.

Keywords

• Judicial careers
• access to the judiciary
• judicial selection
• coaching and training
• informal judicial institutions
• formalism
• transparency