438. According to the General Education (Organization) Act (1/1990 of 3 October), basic compulsory free education includes primary (art. 12) and the first four academic years of secondary, i.e. from age six to 16.

1202. Article 27, paragraph 1 of the Spanish Constitution proclaims the right of everyone to education. Paragraph 4 of the same article provides that "Elementary education is compulsory and free."

439. According to articles 6 and 7 of Royal Decree 1/1995 of 24 March, which approved the amended text of the Workers' Statute Act, the minimum age of work is 16 years, subject to some exceptions discussed below. Thus the labour legislation does not allow children aged under 16 to work. However, the appearance of such children in public performances may be authorized by the labour authorities on an exceptional basis.

471. In Spanish law the minimum age of employment (16 years) is the same as the age of completion of compulsory education.

431. Depending on their degree of maturity and subject to the law, minors aged 14 years or older may act in the following matters:

(a) They may marry, provided that a competent court, with just grounds and on the application of the party concerned, waives the age impediment (arts. 46.1 and 48, second para., of the Civil Code). Marriage produces the de jure emancipation of a minor (art. 316)

451. […] in the case of juvenile offenders Organizational Act 4/1992 of 5 June, amending the Act on the jurisdiction and procedures of the juvenile courts, stipulates 12 years as the minimum age of criminal responsibility.

452. Article 19 of the new Criminal Code, approved by Organizational Act 10/1995 of 23 November, raises the age of criminal responsibility to 18 years, the same as the age of civil majority. However, the entry into force of this article 19 was deferred until the adoption of the Organizational Act on the criminal responsibility of minors, which will address comprehensively and on an up-to-date basis all matters of juvenile justice, i.e. the criminal prosecution of offences committed by persons aged under 18 years.

1436. Provisionally, pending the approval of the Act to govern the penal responsibility of minors, the competence of the juvenile courts, in proceedings conducted by reason of an offence or misdemeanour presumed to have been committed by someone under 18 years of age, extends to children aged more than 12 and less than 16 years. If those same acts are presumed to have been committed by a child over 16 years of age, the ordinary penal jurisdiction will take charge, and the technical staff at the service of the juvenile courts will then be called in to prepare a report on the juvenile’s psychological, educational and family situation, on his or her social background and, in general, any other circumstances that may have contributed to the act of which the juvenile is accused.