An organic act shall lay down its status and the system of incompatibilities applicable to its members and their functions, especially in connection with appointments, promotions, inspection and the disciplinary system.3.

The General Council of the Judicial Power shall consist of the President of the Supreme Court, who shall preside it, and of twenty members appointed by the King for a five-year period, of which twelve shall be judges and magistrates of all judicial categories, under the terms provided for by the organic act; four nominated by the Congress and four by the Senate, elected in both cases by three-fifths of their members amongst lawyers and other jurists of acknowledged competence with more than fifteen years of professional practice.This means that, the Constitution only detail the way of election of the eight members of the CGPJ that they will be chosen between the most renowned jurists.

The Cortes fulfilled this constitutional mandate with the approval of the Organic Law 6/1985, of 1 July, of the Judicial Power.

[5] The Constitution determines in its article 122.3:[2] The Organic Law 2/2001[6] (currently in force), modified the Organic Law 6/1985 in which refers to the election system: Of the 12 members who must be Judges or Magistrates, 6 are elected by Congress and 6 by the Senate, from a list of 36 candidates proposed by associations of judges or by non-associate judges.Each of the chambers that form the Cortes Generales chose ten members by a qualified majority of three fifths.

The President is appointed by the Plenary of the CGPJ between members of the judicial career or jurists of recognized competence.

[3] Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, minister of Justice, announced in 2012 his intention to change the method of election of the 12 members of the CGPJ, returning to the old system of 1985.

However, on December 21, 2012 the minister attended to the Council of Ministers with a preliminary project in which it was established that the election of the twenty members of the governing body of the judges was carried out directly by the Parliament, without previous elections in the judicial career.