Solicitor General of Spain
The Solicitor General of the State is a senior official of the Ministry of Justice. The Spanish Solictor General is the person in charge of directing the Legal Service of the Spanish Government and its relationship with all kinds of national or foreign organisms, entities and bodies. As head of the Legal Service is in charge of the representation and defense of the Kingdom of Spain before the courts, organs and international or supranational organisms in which it is a party in any jurisdictional, arbitral or extrajudicial proceedings. Likewise, it is also responsible for advising the  Government and the organs of the Administration about issues of legality. The Solicitor General is nominated by the Minister of Justice and appointed by the Council of Ministers. To be appointed Solicitor General its needed first to be a State Solicitor. According to the law, in case of vacancy, absence or illness, it is the Minister of Justice who decides who should substitute him, if he do not do so, the law establishes that the senior deputy director-general must to replace him, in this case it would be the Deputy Director-General of Advisory Services. Solicitor General's Office . The Solicitor General's Office, officially called "Solicitor General's Office-Directorate of the State Legal Service" is a Ministry of Justice department which assumes the direction of the State Legal Service, in such concept, corresponds to it the direction, coordination and inspection of the services entrusted to State Solicitors and State Attorneys, ensuring in all cases the maintenance of the principle of unity of doctrine in the exercise of the powers attributed to them. The Solicitor General's Office is assisted by a Cabinet, five deputy director-generals, a Secretary General and the different offices of the State Solicitor 's before courts and other bodies, namely: In the Office exists also a General Secretariat, an assistance body of the Solicitor General about administrative, economic and human resources matters. Are also part of the Office, and depend directly from the Solicitor General: Council of State Solicitors. The Council of State Solicitors is a support body of the Solicitor General of the State formed by the Solicitor General and other eight State Solicitors that are appointed or removed by the Solicitor General. The law requires that at least one of the State Solicitors is destinated to the consultive services of the  State Legal Service, other to the contentious services and other to the peripheral administration (it's the decentralize administration of the State). The term of this members are 3 years and can be renewed. The Council has as duties the assistance and functional support to the Solicitor General, at the request of the latter, in matters that he considers of particular relevance or that entail new criteria and guidelines for the action of State Solicitors and the issuance of non-binding reports, if requested by the Solicitor General, with the nature of adopting the most relevant provisions for the internal  functioning of the State Legal Service. History. The Solicitor General in spanish have received many names. In the year of its creation, 1849, the Solicitor General received the name of Director-General of the Contentious of the Ministry of the Treasury or Director-General of the Contentious of the Public Treasury. This denomination was maintained until 1854 when start to be called General Advisor of the Ministry of Finance until 1877 when recovered its original name by being called Director-General of the Contentious of the State. It remained that way until 1985, when the office was renamed Director-General  of the State Legal Service. The current name of the office was established in 2000 being officially called Solicitor General of the State-Director of the State Legal Service although to simplify is called only Solicitor General of the State. In its origins, the Solicitor General depended on the Minister of the Treasury and required that they be students of law, administrative science and have experience in the practice of the business of the Public Treasury. Its functions were limited to the powers of the Ministry of Finance and were responsible for issuing legal reports and supervising the prosecutors' actions  in the courts. In the reform of 1881, that the State Solicitors assumed the two functions that they have today, the advisory function and the contentious function, in addition to the representation function.