Garantías procedimentales y sustantivas en la aplicación a los abogados de las correcciones disciplinarias previstas en la LOPJ.

Abstract

The article deals with the statute law and with the case law from the Constitutional Court related to the fines and disciplinary measures (contempt of court) that, under the LOPJ and the LEC, judges can impose to attorneys when they behave disrespectfully or they disrupt the hearing or they break their professional duties. The author focuses on some of the constitutional rights that might apply, particularly the right to an impartial tribunal and the right to defence, both included in the right to a fair trial (section 24.2 of the Constitution). The main conclusion is somewhat ambivalent: the case law is not always clear, nor coherent, and sometimes is even unprincipled, but nevertheless, by bringing some flexibility to those two rights, the Constitutional Court has allowed judges to use the fines in some cases in which the contempt of court (policía de estrados) was burdensome, or impossible, to apply.