Dr Javier Cremades
Javier Cremades, President of the World Jurist Association, President and Founder of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo Abogados, and Full Member of the Royal European Academy of Doctors (READ), presented last December the book “On the Rule of Law” (Galaxia Gutenberg), a work in which he expands upon and gives a distinctly reflective and accessible character to the address of the same title with which he joined the Academy in December 2022, introduced by the Vice-President and renowned jurist Teresa Freixes. In this latest work, the author defends the scrupulous preservation of the rule of law as the only alternative to the rule of force, arguing that only under the governance of laws can human beings live in peace and freedom and achieve progress grounded in equality of rights and opportunities.
According to the author, the threats currently facing the rule of law no longer stem, as in the twentieth century, from Nazism, fascism, or communism—since such totalitarianisms no longer seek political imposition—but rather from the corruption of regimes that present themselves as democratic within the classical Western model, such as those of Russia or Venezuela, as well as from the interference of populist movements in countries such as the United States, still considered guarantors of that democratic model. In response, he advocates education and firmness as the most effective antidotes against democratic regression.
“The rule of law is a legal concept that subjects state action to a fundamental rule: the Constitution. Human dignity is a basic value of the Constitution itself and is necessarily linked to freedom, including political freedom—that is, democracy. The rule of law, or in other words the constitutional state, highlights that the principle of constitutional law is to protect the dignity of individuals. However, for law to influence social awareness—not only among jurists but throughout society—it is necessary to promote civic culture through teaching and education, as well as through institutions and individuals themselves. If this fails, the rule of law will also fail, because although the guarantees that protect it are primarily legal, they are also political and social,” states the presentation of the book.
The work has received an excellent reception in both general and specialized media, which highlight its role in defending democracy and the timeliness of its publication. In the newspaper “El Mundo,” journalist Manuel Aragón describes it as “admirable.” “The rule of law, and not the rule of force, is the only path to preserving human dignity and maintaining peace, both among individuals and among nations. Law must not be understood merely in a formal sense—as democratically enacted—but also in a material sense, animated by a specific purpose: to ensure the freedom and equality of citizens. Such a conception of law is nothing less than the faithful expression of the constitutional state, as the book demonstrates through rigorous theoretical analysis combined with concrete references to practice, highlighting both cases in which the rule of law is a reality and those in which, regrettably, it has been distorted,” he writes.
On the specialized platform El Mundo Financiero, journalist Alfonso Merlos emphasizes the updated and renewed defense of democracy beyond legal and institutional structures and highlights Cremades as one of the Spanish jurists with the greatest international prestige. “It is essential for society to understand that today’s threats do not come from totalitarianisms as such (or as we knew them decades or centuries ago), but from corruption within certain nations and political parties, as well as from the interference of populist movements lacking preparation and driven by opportunism,” he notes. Meanwhile, Economist & Jurist underlines the reflective nature of the work and the need to reinterpret the defense of democracy. “Javier Cremades’s work invites reflection on law and its application and, in a certain sense, recalls the words of Florencio García Goyena, who stated that ‘the written norm is a codification of Law which, in itself, is something much broader: condensed life, compressed life, expressed incompletely in a partial plane, in a specific rule that cannot foresee everything and must therefore often be complemented by what it lacks,’” the publication explains.
An internationally renowned professional, Cremades is the author of numerous reference works, including “Kidnapped Energy: Debunking the Myths of Energy Fundamentalism” and “Micropower: The Strength of Citizens in the Digital Age.” He serves on the editorial boards of various legal publications and is a regular contributor to media outlets such as “El País,” “ABC,” “El Mundo,” “Expansión,” and “Diario 16,” as well as television channels including CNN, Antena 3, and Televisión Española. He has led several editions of the prestigious World Law Congress and conducted an independent audit on cases of sexual abuse within the Church at the request of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. Among his professional distinctions, he was named Lawyer of the Year in Spain by Forbes magazine in 2015 and Lawyer of the Year Worldwide by the World Jurist Association in 2017. He has received honorary medals from the bar associations of Madrid, Barcelona, and Málaga, as well as Mexico’s National Jurisprudence Award, and was recognized by the Fundación Independiente as Universal Spaniard 2024.
