Impeachment Trial in Colonial Spanish America
The Powers of the Visitors
The powers of the visitors may also include the payment of the sums defrauded from the estate and assets that, against the laws, had been purchased from the judges for hearings or other ministers.
At the conclusion of the visit, an adjusted memorial was written and sent to the Indian Board, where the dossier to the Council of the Indies came in sight of her previously quoted prosecutors of the visit. After sentencing, which was left to the Indians for implementation, the ruling was served on the convicted and later became public knowledge for the collectivity.
Proceedings of Residence
The adoption of various control measures in the territories conquered by the Spanish crown, including the impeachment trial, can be explained by the need to facilitate the proper functioning of the various administrative and judicial bodies. From nothing would have served the most perfect creations and wisest legislative intentioned treatment provisions that the Indians should receive, and the detailed rules to prevent arbitrariness and abuse of power and enrichment of colonial officials.
Control measures were implemented, however, and the impeachment trial as one of them on the head of each official, reminding them at all times of the obligation to adjust their actions to the law.
Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the legal sources of Roman law, where this institution has its origins, and its development carried out by Italian jurists of the Middle Ages and its implementation and evolution in Castilian law.
1. Concept
Call it impeachment or simply residence, it is the review that took account of the acts performed by a public official at the conclusion of their tenure.
Also noted was the intention to ascertain the conduct of the authorities who understood, for which it should always proceed automatically, without impairing the public demands that could establish accounts. Impeachment against persons are aggrieved by the acts of administration.
Note that the name comes from the time of the trial that the officers should remain, mandatorily, in the place where they exercised their own initiative, in order to facilitate research.
2. Choice and Number of Judges
In the early days of settlement in Spain, it was decided to appoint those who would take the time residences and that these should be practiced, although in some cases agencies in America were granted the right to choose the person of the judge.
The general rule was, however, that the residences of consultation offices provided by the Indian Council would have judges appointed by the president of that body and that the trades whose title had been issued by viceroys, governors, presidents, and judges were taken by commissioners by such officers.
Regarding the number, one person lasted two centuries until it was decided to appoint three people.
The difficulty of finding three worthy subjects, when finding a number of reports were accurate, made it difficult to obtain.
The advantages of this system of appointment made it subsist for most of the sixteenth century because the disadvantages required, nevertheless, achieved greater cost savings.
3. Structure
The residences in July were settled in two parts and through a thorough and complex procedure. In the first one, which was secret, the judge’s conduct of office staff was found out, and the second was published with claims that were received, interposed by individuals to obtain redress of their grievances.
4. Proclamation of Residence
The trial began with the publication of the banns of residence, which was normally made in the main towns and cities when it came to officials whose jurisdiction included broad provisions. This publication was very important because it made known to all the existence of the trial and marked the moment at which began to be counted the terms set forth in the schedule of the committee.
In these edicts, the public was invited to press their demands against the grievances impeached by prejudice, injustice, and without grounds, they would have received in their person, honor, or estates. They also ensured the protection and shelter to the plaintiffs, actual and threatened, with various penalties on those who would amend or prevent in any way the access to the court.
To carry out the publication of the banns and examination of witnesses in remote locations, judges appointed commissioners, who were owed the same respect as the court of residence so that the resistance to them was severely punished.
In conducting the second diligence annotated, models are still current. Interrogation usually included in the forensic practice classics or those used in previous residences taken in the same district added the questions that were considered appropriate for the effective establishment of facts or to meet their special instructions had been given to the visiting justice.
There were also rules for the chiefs or magistrates who knowingly judged against right out of affection or disaffection to any of the litigants or other persons, and consisting of deprivation of employment in the perpetual disqualification for any office or position.
It should be noted that the magistrates or judges, for lack of education or negligently failed against the law states and that it contravenes the laws of the process, should lead to the replacement of the same and were required to pay all costs and damages.