Registration of foreign public documents in Spanish public registries in the new Act on voluntary jurisdiction and on Act on international legal cooperation in civil matters

Abstract

Spanish Act 15/2015 of 2 July on voluntary jurisdiction contains a provision, additional provision three, concerning the registration of foreign public documents in Spanish public registries, This provision is unsystematic for two reasons. In the first place, Act 15/2015 already includes a chapter, chapter I, concerning rules of private international law. This chapter contains a section regulating the registration in Spain of final decisions handed down by a foreign court in the voluntary jurisdiction (section 11) and a section establishing the effects in Spain of proceedings and acts in the voluntary jurisdiction decided on by foreign authorities, including their recognition not only by Spanish courts, but also by Spanish public registry attendants during the pre-registration scrutiny (article 12). In the second place, the very same subject matter that is regulated in additional provision three of Act 15/2015 was addressed very shortly afterward in Spanish Act 29/2015 of 30 July on international legal cooperation in civil matters, whose chapter VI regulates the registration in Spain of foreign judicial decisions (section 59) and foreign public documents (section 60). Under Act 29/2015, these provisions are supplemented by two common rules for both types of registrable titles (section 58 concerning reference to domestic registration rules in matters of legal requirements and the effects of registration entries, and section 61 concerning the adaptation to domestic law of foreign legal concepts unknown in the forum). These provisions are all subject to the system of sources established in section 2 of the Act on international legal cooperation, pursuant to which international legal cooperation in civil and commercial matters is governed by: a) the rules of the European Union and international treaties to which Spain is a party; b) the special rules of domestic law; c) on a subsidiary basis, the Act on international legal cooperation.

That is to say, the Act on international legal cooperation is a law that is applied on a subsidiary basis where there are no international treaties, European rules or «special rules of domestic law» that apply. «Special rules» include the rules given in the Spanish Mortgage Act, the Spanish Mortgage Regulation, the Spanish Code of Commerce and the Spanish Business Registry Regulation concerning the registration of foreign documents to the extent of the documents ’ compatibility with the provisions of said act. These rules must be re-examined in the light of the new legislative context. This article is an exegesis of the new legislation. It endeavours to sort out the confused interpretation created by the unsystematic jumble of rules and regulations on the registration of foreign documents in Spanish public registries, particularly the Property Registry.