Diego Íñiguez

Diego Íñiguez is adjunct professor at IE Law School. As a senior judge, he specializes in Administrative, Public and EU Law. He is also a career civil servant and holds a PhD (2005) in Law from the Universidad de Cantabria.

As a civil servant, he has held senior legal and executive positions at several Spanish ministries and embassies. He has spent a significant part of his career – 12 years – in Germany: at the European Patent Office (Munich), as Information Counselor at the Embassy to Germany (Berlin), and as Education Counselor at the embassies to Germany and the Nordic countries (Bonn and Berlin). He has served as a senior judge in Madrid and Bilbao and is currently a judge at the Court of Audits (consejero de Cuentas del Tribunal de Cuentas).

His areas of research are separation of powers and the politics of the judiciary, German politics and society, and electoral and migration law. He has taught Constitutional Law as an associate professor at the Universidad de Alcalá.

He has authored numerous publications, and has given seminars and lectures, on the constitutional framework and operation of the judiciary, German politics and society, educational external action, comparative electoral law, and EU judicial cooperation. Among others, he has authored El fracaso del autogobierno judicial (Thompson-Civitas, 2008), and has co-authored “Legal Framework”, in Administration and Cost Elections Project (United Nations, CIFES and ILEA, 1998, with Pablo Santolaya) and Comentarios a la nueva Ley de Extranjería (Lex Nova, 2001). Alongside W. Bernecker and G. Maihold, he co-edited ¿Crisis? ¿Qué crisis? (Iberoamericana-Vervuert, 2009). He was the rapporteur on “The General Council of the Judiciary” at the XII Congress of the Asociación de Constitucionalistas de España and authored “La contrarreforma del Consejo General del Poder Judicial”, published by Teoría y Realidad Constitucional in 2014.

He is a regular contributor to the Vocento Group’s regional newspapers and to Política Exterior, and has occasionally contributed to El País and other publications.

CORPORATE EXPERIENCE

• Senior judge at the Court of Audits (consejero de Cuentas del Tribunal de Cuentas), Madrid, from noviembre 2021

• Chief of Staff to the Defense Minister, Madrid, 2020 – 2021

• Human Resources Director, SME Paradores, Madrid, 2020

• Senior judge, Administrative court n.3 in Bilbao, Bilbao, 2011 – 2012 y 2016 – 2020

• Administrator at the European Patent Office, Munich, 2013 – 2016

• Senior judge, Central Administrative court n.4, Audiencia Nacional, Madrid, 2012 – 2013

• Information Counselor at the embassy to Germany, Berlin, 2010 – 2011

• Education and Science Counselor at the embassies to Germany and the Nordic countries, 2007 – 2010

• Deputy Chief of Staff to the Government’s First Vicepresident, Madrid, 2004 – 2007

• Education Counselor at the embassies to Germany and the Nordic countries, Bonn and Berlin, 2000 – 2004

• Legal Adviser, Secretaría General Técnica, Education and Culture Ministry, Madrid, 1998 – 2000

• Legal Adviser, Subsecretaría, Justice Ministry, Madrid, 1997 – 1998

• General Secretary, Consejería de Economía y Administraciones Públicas, regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, 1996 – 1997

• Executive Adviser to the Justice and Interior Minister, Madrid, 1994 – 1996

• Legal Adviser to the Justice Minister, Madrid, 1993 – 1994

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

• Professor (adjunct professor), Master of Public Administration, Universidad del País Vasco, Bilbao, 2018

• Profesor asociado (adjunct professor) in Constitutional Law, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, 2006 – 2007

• Tutor (colaborador honorario), Constitutional Law Dpt., Universidad Complutense, Madrid, 1997 – 1999

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

• PhD in Law, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander (2005), PhD thesis: Separation of Powers and Judicial Politics. Director: Pablo Santolaya Machetti.

• Curso selectivo (now a Master) to the Senior Civil Service, Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública, Madrid, 1993

• Licenciado en Derecho (in the traditional system, Bachellor + Master), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, 1989