In our recent article, at Ayuela Jiménez we analysed Constitutional Court Judgment (STC) 15/2026, of 23 February, and noted that it could mark a turning point in pre-trial detention practice. The legality of what had hitherto been tolerated —that a generic “summary” or purely formal access to the incriminating evidence sufficed to order pre-trial detention— […]

For over a decade, Spanish criminal procedural law has included a key safeguard to ensure that a suspect in proceedings subject to secrecy (secreto de sumario) can effectively exercise their right of defence: their lawyer may (or, as will be seen, may only theoretically) have access to the essential elements of the proceedings underlying the […]