The Department of Justice, Local Administration, and Public Function will celebrate the III Conference ‘Women who inspire us in the Defense of Equality’ on February 25 in Malaga, as part of the activities for International Women’s Day. The choice of Malaga as the venue is due to it being the only province in Andalusia with a female president of the Court of Justice and deans of judges, lawyers, and the Faculty of Law. These women are jurists who have broken the glass ceiling, with the dean of the Bar Association being the first woman to hold such a position not only in Malaga but in all of Andalusia.
In fact, the Minister of Justice, José Antonio Nieto, has met with Flor Carrasco and the entire board of the Bar Association for the first time since her recent election. Carrasco replaces Salvador González after his appointment as president of the Spanish Bar Association. «She is now part of history» as the first female dean of a bar association in Andalusia, said the minister, highlighting the significant impact of the Association’s educational and analytical activities, organizing «one of the most important legal congresses in Spain and Europe.»
Both will inaugurate the conference, along with the Government Delegate of the Junta in Malaga, Patricia Navarro, following the previous editions held in Granada and Cordoba. Nieto stated that choosing the venue for this third edition was «very easy,» as «there is no province where a woman leads the Provincial Court, the Deanship of judges, the Bar Association, and the Faculty of Law all at once».
The panel will include judges Lourdes García and Cristina Hurtado de Mendoza, Carrasco herself, and the Administrative Law professor at the University of Malaga, Isabel González. They will address the current challenges in applying and developing regulations on conciliation, the necessary measures to deepen shared responsibility, the role of justice in ensuring the fundamental right to equal opportunities, and the essential commitment of social and institutional actors.
This will be followed by a roundtable discussion moderated by the General Secretary of Judicial Services of the Department, Rosalía Espinosa, with the conference closing remarks by the Deputy Minister of Justice, Ana Corredera.
The challenge of the Efficiency Law
The minister also emphasized the crucial role of legal professionals in a pivotal year where «we have to implement a complex law that will transform the landscape of justice throughout Spain, the Efficiency Law, which will be a significant leap and can only succeed by involving all legal operators to enhance citizen service.»
«We need to gather opinions and receive contributions from everyone,» he stressed, recalling the two participatory conferences held in Seville and Granada to gather input from all legal operators on the draft Strategic Justice Plan being developed by the Department to address judicial infrastructure, digitalization, staff reorganization, service humanization, and system sustainability.
Nieto lamented the deficit in creating bodies, under the Ministry of Justice, which has only established 12 courts in the province and 5 magistrate positions in recent years, while the Andalusian High Court considers 42 courts and 14 magistrates necessary due to population growth and the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking along the coast.
On her part, the dean of the Bar Association in Malaga thanked the Junta for its support on issues such as compensation for legal aid professionals, increased last year after 14 years of stagnation, and ongoing dialogue for improvements. «Only by uniting the 10 Andalusian bar associations with the Junta can we provide better service,» she emphasized. Carrasco highlighted the significant challenge posed by the introduction of Alternative Dispute Resolution Methods (ADR) in the new Efficiency Law to «try to relieve the courts of unmanageable litigation and ensure that agreements come from citizens, as our courts cannot handle more and resources are limited.»
Indeed, Andalusia has anticipated the law with a Mediation Strategy to promote this alternative conflict resolution method. It is the first region to include it in the Legal Aid system, creating a public and free Penal Mediation Service (SEMPA) and will establish another for Civil and Commercial Mediation this year.