María Emilia Casas

María Emilia Casas Baamonde (born 30 November 1950) is a Spanish jurist. She was the country's first woman Professor of Labor and Social Security Law. In 1998, she joined the Constitutional Court of Spain, becoming the youngest member in the history of the institution. In 2004, she was the Constitutional Court's first woman president, and she continued in that role until 2011. During her presidency, progress was made in anti-discrimination and equality law.

María Emilia Casas
June 2004 in La Moncloa
President of the Constitutional Court of Spain
In office
15 June 2004 – 12 January 2011
Preceded byManuel Jiménez
Succeeded byPascual Sala
Member of the Constitutional Court of Spain
In office
16 December 1998 – 12 January 2011
Personal details
Born
María Emilia Casas Baamonde

(1950-11-30) 30 November 1950
León, Spain
SpouseJesús Leguina
Alma materComplutense University of Madrid
OccupationJurist

Biography

Originally from Monforte de Lemos, where a street is named for her grandfather Roberto Baamonde Robles, a politician and cavalry commander,[1] María Emilia Casas was born in León, where her father was the property registrar.[2]

She studied law at the Complutense University of Madrid, where she graduated Premio Extraordinario, and received a Ph.D. with the same qualification as a pupil of the Complutense professor emeritus of Law, Manuel Alonso Olea. She also has a degree in Philosophy and Literature.[2]

Academic career

Casas has been Professor of Labor Law and Social Security at the Law School of the Complutense University, the first woman with this chair in the country. She has taught classes in various postgraduate programs and specialization courses in different Spanish and foreign universities. She is a member of the management committee of Charles III University of Madrid, and has also been its vice-rector of International and Institutional Relations.

She has been a member of the council of the Bartolomé de las Casas International Institute of Political Sciences and Human Rights.

Expert in labor relations

Casas has made labor relations a key element in her professional career, participating in various international seminars and lecturing on the subject.[3]

In addition to holding the Chair of Labor Law and Social Security in Spain, she taught master's degree classes in Occupational Risk Management at the University of Salamanca.

In 1998, shortly before becoming a member of the Constitutional Court at the request of the government, she was part of the group of experts on labor standards charged with drafting the law regulating stable part-time work.[3]

Career on the Constitutional Court

On 16 December 1998, Casas was elected Magistrate of the Constitutional Court of Spain, becoming the youngest member in the institution's history,[2] and in 2004 she was named its president, becoming the first woman to hold that office.[3] For her appointment, she obtained the votes of the progressive magistrates and those of the conservatives Roberto García Calvo and Jorge Rodríguez-Zapata.

These were subsequently challenged by the debate on the constitutionality of the reform that the Socialist Party, IU-ICV, and CiU carried out to the Organic Law of the Constitutional Court.[4] Popularly known as the Casas Amendment, it established the automatic extension of the Presidency of the Court while there was no renewal of the judges whose term had expired. According to the appeals filed by the People's Party to the Plenary of the Constitutional Court,[5] this usurped the mandate established in Article 160 of the Spanish Constitution, to elect the President of said Court every three years. This amendment, collected in article 16.3 of the Organic Law of the Constitutional Court (LOTC), was declared in accordance with the Constitution in Constitutional Court Decision 47/2008, of 9 April.

In 2007, she was subjected to harsh criticism and accused of a crime of improper counseling. A woman contacted Casas by telephone, facilitated by a neighbor, to ask her opinion about the conflicts with her ex-husband and the recovery of custody of her daughter.[6] It was the lawyer María Dolores Martín Pozo who told the Court President that she had gone through a judicial trial and wanted to regain custody of her daughter. Casas received documentation and maintained telephone conversations with the latter, telling her that she should "provoke a judicial action to reach the Constitutional Court en amparo", and that she should be called if she did appeal to the Court. Said woman was later arrested on charges of hiring a hitman to kill her ex-husband.[7] The plot was discovered due to a wiretap, decreed by a judge, on the woman's telephone. Casas was accused of a crime of improper counseling. In June 2008, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court closed the case.[6]

Advances in anti-discrimination law and equality

As a professor of labor law, during her presidency the Constitutional Court consolidated the anti-discrimination protection for reasons of gender in its multiple aspects, and reinforced the protection of pregnant workers (STC 92/2008),[8] while attributing the constitutional dimension to all those measures aimed at facilitating the reconciliation of work and family life of workers (STC 3/2007). It also set insurmountable limits based on the dignity of the person and on the free development of the personality, on the entrepreneurial capacity of employers to control the free time of workers (STC 192/2003).[9] In short, it contributed to extending the protection of the rights to strike and freedom of association to the contexts of productive decentralization (STC 75/2010).[10]

During Casas' Presidency, the Court also endorsed the constitutionality of the Comprehensive Law Against Gender Violence, recognizing the specific characteristics of this criminal phenomenon, the needs of protection of the victim, and the greater social reproach of aggression against the wife or partner. In the application of the anti-discrimination law – highlighted by Inmaculada Montalbán, president of the Observatory Against Gender Violence – she followed the path marked by the commitments made by Spain at an international and European level.[11]

She was responsible for drafting the seventh and final version of the ruling on the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, after not previously achieving sufficient support in the Plenary Session of the Court.[12][13]

She left the presidency of the Court in January 2011.[14]

In 2014, she joined the Ejaso Law Firm as an attorney.[15]

Honorary distinctions

Personal life

María Emilia Casas was married to the Professor of Administrative Law and advisor to the Bank of Spain, Jesús Leguina Villa (1942–2016), and has four children.[2]

References
  1. "Baamonde Robles, Roberto" (in Spanish). Congress of Deputies. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  2. "La magistrada María Emilia Casas ha sido elegida Gallega del Año 2011" [Magistrate María Emilia Casas Has Been Elected 2011 Galician of the Year]. El Correo Gallego (in Spanish). Santiago de Compostela. 22 September 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  3. "María Emilia Casas Baamonde: de la docencia al máximo poder judicial" [María Emilia Casas Baamonde: From Teaching to the Highest Judicial Power]. El Mundo (in Spanish). Madrid. 15 June 2004. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  4. "María Emilia Casas asegura que la enmienda para la prórroga del mandato no le afecta" [María Emilia Casas Assures That the Amendment for the Extension of the Mandate Does Not Affect Her]. El Mundo (in Spanish). Madrid. EFE. 6 March 2007. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  5. "El TC decide que Casas y Jiménez no podrán entrar en el debate del recurso contra su ley" [The TC Decides That Casas and Jiménez Will Not Be Able to Enter the Debate on the Appeal Against Their Law]. ABC (in Spanish). Madrid. 28 September 2007. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  6. "El Supremo archiva el procedimiento contra Casas por asesoramiento ilegal" [The Supreme Court Files Proceedings Against Casas for Illegal Advice]. ABC (in Spanish). Madrid. 5 June 2008. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  7. Mercado, Francisco (8 June 2008). "La llamada que toda España oyó" [The Call That All of Spain Heard]. El País (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  8. "STC 092/2008" (in Spanish). Constitutional Court of Spain. Archived from the original on 19 May 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  9. "Documento BOE-T-2003-21532". Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). 26 November 2003. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  10. "STC 075/2010" (in Spanish). Constitutional Court of Spain. Archived from the original on 19 May 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  11. Montalbán, Inmaculada (13 January 2011). "Gracias, María Emilia Casas". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  12. Martialay, Ángela (28 June 2010). "El Constitucional avala el Estatuto catalán" [The Constitutional Court Endorses the Catalan Statute]. Libertad Digital (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  13. Brunet, José María (28 March 2009). "La juez ponente del Estatut en el TC amaga con dimitir" [The Proposing Judge of the Statute in the TC Threatens to Resign]. La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  14. Lázaro, Julio M. (12 January 2011). "La presidenta del Constitucional critica al Parlamento por la tardía renovación del Tribunal" [The President of the Constitutional Court Criticizes Parliament for the Late Renewal of the Court]. El País (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  15. García-León, Carlos (3 June 2014). "María Emilia Casas, expresidenta del TC, se incorpora a Ejaso" [María Emilia Casas, Ex-President of the TC, Joins Ejaso]. Expansión (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  16. "Galardonados del Premio Pelayo" [Winners of the Pelayo Award] (in Spanish). Pelayo Insurance. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  17. "Disposición 12793" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish) (292): 97563. 6 December 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
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