motivación de autos

22:29 May 9, 2020 

Great point. And thanks for those references -- very useful.

21:29 May 9, 2020 

Legal terms vary widely in meaning jurisdiction to jurisdiction. It's important to consult sources that reference the specific national jurisdiction in question (e.g. sources of law). RAE does have a Diccionario de español Jurídico (https://dej.rae.es/), but even the legal term entries are very limited. I would look into Rebecca Jower's lexico when it comes to Spanish Law; it's my go to resource along with Thomas West and Javier Becerra (even before checking Alcaraz)

20:41 May 9, 2020 

I agree that it basically means "decisions, excluding judgments". In the article Manuel links to, the writer appears to be speaking broadly:

"Desde entonces, la motivación de autos y sentencias se convirtió en algo sagrado para los jueces y magistrados españoles."

20:12 May 9, 2020 

If I had to differentiate, I would then say sentencia would be "judgment/sentence/verdict/ruling," auto would be "order/proceedings/decree," and resolución would be "decision."

However, for asker's text, translating it as "Grounds for orders/decrees" sounds odd. "Reasons for orders/decrees" sounds a bit better, but it's not the clearest way to express it (in my view.) However, most people would readily understand "reasons for decisions" or "reasons for judgments."

20:04 May 9, 2020 

Seth made an interesting point.

Translations of auto, sentencia, resolución, etc. can vary, and if one had to distinguish between these in the same text, one would have to choose carefully and make sure the distinctions are correct. You have to use your judgment in the context of a source text to decide how to handle the subtle variations in meaning.

In this case, I'm making the assumption that the text does not differentiate between autos, sentencias, etc., but rather appears in isolation.

Here are the definitions of a few similar Spanish words to consider (according to the RAE):

See the below definitions:

sentencia
...
3. f. Declaración del juicio y resolución del juez.
4. f. Decisión de cualquier controversia o disputa extrajudicial, que da la persona a quien se ha hecho árbitro de ella para que la juzgue o componga.
...

auto
...
2. m. Der. Resolución judicial motivada que decide cuestiones secundarias, previas, incidentales o de ejecución, para las que no se requiere sentencia.
...

resolución
...
5. f. Decreto, providencia, auto o fallo de autoridad gubernativa o judicial.
...

19:03 May 9, 2020 

Source: Spanish-English Dictionary of Law and Business by Thos L. West