Law and contracts

What holds these lists together

These lists share one feature: you meet them only when things become serious, and then all at once. A court date, an official decision, a deadline, a notary’s deed — texts that do not explain what they mean and apply all the same. They hang together because everyday-looking words mean something else here, and several look like English ones. La demanda is the claim filed in court, not a demand; denunciar is to report something to the police, not to denounce anybody; el juicio is the trial itself. Read in their everyday sense, they turn a letter from the court upside down. The lists explain words, not anybody’s legal position.

For example: el derecho penal (criminal law), el convenio colectivo (the sector-wide collective agreement), la jurisdicción competente (the branch of the courts that has power to hear it), la protección de datos (data protection), el fallecimiento (the death), el derecho constitucional (the law that orders every other branch of law)

Spread across the levels

The category runs across the levels — it is an area, not a difficulty. If you practise it, you can also choose a level at the top of the practice page and then get only the part that sits there.