Jurisdiction, Principles, and Procedures in Criminal Law
Characteristics of Jurisdiction
Unit, independence, tenure, impartiality, exclusivity, and responsibility.
Principles of Immediacy
Continuing the principle of orality, including the plenary phase, the principle of immediacy dictates that the court passing the sentence must have a direct relationship with the parties, witnesses, experts, and trial objects to base its decision. This has two implications:
- The judge must prioritize evidence directly related to the facts.
- Judgment should occur as soon as possible after the trial concludes.
This principle requires a timely award, as impressions and memories fade from the court’s recollection.
Assumptions in Instruction, Failure to Remedy, and Decision-Making
Gender Violence. Kidnapping. Injury Crime police.
The Acting Prosecutor’s Office
The prosecution formally participates by promoting court action, making requests, presenting arguments, and offering evidence. Materially, it represents the public interest in justice, opposing or aligning with the defense. As a public authority, it must consider both adverse and favorable circumstances for the accused in summary and trial proceedings. A basic requirement of the adversarial principle is that accusations must originate from outside the sentencing court. In exercising the right to punish, the state splits into criminal proceedings, acting as requester (charging through the Prosecutor’s Office) and decision-maker. The Prosecutor’s Office exercises appropriate penal action, except for cases reserved for private lawsuits.
Regarding legitimation in public offenses (pursued ex officio), the Prosecutor’s Office must bring punitive claims and any indemnification accumulated in criminal proceedings unless waived or expressly reserved. In private crimes, proceedings continue solely through private lawsuits, with no Prosecutor’s Office intervention. In semi-offenses, prior complaint by the party or legal representative is required. The Prosecutor’s Office intervenes only after the complaint, then proceeding as with public offenses. This body reports incidents when the victim is a minor, incompetent, or disabled.
Private Prosecutor and Popular Prosecutor
Any Spanish citizen, offended or not, can be a party and charge as a private prosecutor, regardless of the victim. The special prosecutor is part of the court, exercising the criminal claim and punitive damages unless waived or reserved.
Requirements for Private Prosecutor
Subjective Requirements
- Spanish or foreign nationality.
- Provision of required security for the lawsuit, unless exempt by treaty or reciprocity.
- Ability to be a party, meaning natural or legal persons. Legal standing is equivalent to the capacity to work with those exercising full civil rights. Legal persons must appear through a representative.
- Legitimacy from being offended or harmed by the crime. The offended is the legal owner of the property injured or endangered. The harmed suffers any harmful consequence. These often, but not always, coincide (e.g., homicide). Strictly, only the victim should act as private prosecutor, having personal interest in the punishment. However, law allows the harmed to also be a private prosecutor.
Objective Requirements
- Refer to the crimes for which prosecution is possible: public and parastatal agencies, excluding private ones.
- In public offenses, a popular prosecutor may appear alongside the private prosecutor, and the Prosecutor’s Office always appears.
- In semi-offenses, only the Prosecutor’s Office appears alongside the private prosecutor.
- The private prosecutor is autonomous and independent from the Prosecutor’s Office, able to maintain charges even if the public body withdraws.
- Generally, a contingent party (proceedings usually continue without intervention from the injured or harmed).
- In some cases (semi-offenses), the Penal Code requires action by the offended, or if a minor/incompetent/disabled, their legal representative or the Prosecutor’s Office. A complaint suffices to start the process; constitution as a private prosecutor is not required.
Activity Requirements
The offended or injured party can appear as a party by:
- Formulating a lawsuit: Initiates the process and establishes party status. Filing a complaint alone does not grant party status, only triggers the procedure.
- Accepting an offer of shares in an ongoing process: In the investigative phase, the offended is informed of their right to participate and exercise civil action, waive it, or retain it for a later civil trial. They appear by written request, signed by counsel and solicitor. This has a preclusive limit: until provisional status in regular processes, and until the indictment in abbreviated processes.
The Accused
Individuals without offended or harmed status can exercise criminal action. If a criminal act undermines social order, all members of society can request, on behalf of their employer, the restoration of order. This is an active and contingent role, acting autonomously like a private prosecutor, even if the Prosecutor’s Office disagrees.
Requirements for Popular Action
Subjective Requirements
- Spanish citizenship (currently also accepted for legal persons like unions and consumer associations).
Objective Requirements
- The popular actor is neither offended nor harmed, acting in defense of the legal system and social order of justice.
- Involvement only in public offense proceedings.
Action Requirements
- Requires a complaint, even if the process has begun.
- Complaint admission is conditional on the popular prosecutor providing a bond, with type and amount determined by the judge.
When is an Attorney Required?
Regular Process: If counsel is required, so is an attorney, except for detainees or prisoners.
Abbreviated Process: Distinction between party-appointed and assigned counsel. With party-appointed counsel, the Attorney General appoints the attorney. With assigned counsel, the public defender initially handles defense and representation, with no attorney needed until trial. Prosecutor intervention is mandatory after the order to commence trial.
Self-Defense
In some cases, the accused can engage in self-defense, directly and personally participating in the process to preserve their freedom, prevent conviction, or obtain the minimum penalty. The LEC demonstrates this through proposing disqualification orally while held incommunicado (art. 58), appointing experts (art. 356), attending visual inspections with personal statements (art. 333), stating their desired frequency (art. 400), the right to the last word (art. 739), etc. The clearest example is the trial of misdemeanors, where neither lawyer nor attorney is required.
Elements of the Punitive Claim
Establishing the objective element of the punitive claim requires identifying the claim through the narrative of events. This alleged factual reality is subject to prosecution, verifying its occurrence. This object, part of the process, constitutes the offense (events allegedly occurring and potentially having criminal consequences).
Two opposing theories identify the offense’s elements:
- Focusing solely on the event without assessment (naturalistic theory).
- Identifying facts falling under applicable penal provisions (normativist theory).
Currently, a combination is necessary. The offense is a historical fact narrated in the indictment, but these events should be viewed through the lens of the rules. Essential elements are determined by considering applicable criminal laws, identifying specific events constituting a particular offense. The core is typical implementing acts under criminal law.
The same event is treated identically when there’s identity, at least partially, in typical performance measures, even inadvertently in complicity cases. The common element is the injured legal interest, the “material content of the unjust.” This requires homogeneous offenses, where the protected legal interest is qualitatively the same or similar (e.g., theft and other theft concerning private property, but injuries and attempted murder concerning physical and human life).
Besides the factual foundation, the legal foundation of the offense score is part of the criminal prosecution’s purpose. The court, unbound by the parties’ legal classification, applies relevant legal rules to the facts, potentially changing the prosecution’s legal status if the new subsumption corresponds to homogeneous legal property rules. Uniformity aside, the protected legal status shouldn’t influence the process’s object.
The Supreme Court, in the common procedure for serious crimes, links the court’s title to the conviction affirmed by the prosecution. If the court finds a manifest error in the described justice and wants to impose a higher penalty, it should suggest to the accused parties to claim this new legal status. The law also allows for cases with aggravating changes in participation forms and implementation levels. If the prosecution rejects the court’s thesis, it cannot take the qualifying proposal, addressing excessive charges to dispose of the claim’s legal status.
In abbreviated procedures, the court can impose a heavier penalty than requested, but only if one party has presented that approach. Regarding the specific grief request, it shouldn’t identify the claim. In regular processes for serious crimes, the judge isn’t bound by the specific penalty applied. However, in summary proceedings, there’s a link to the requested sentence: “The sentence cannot impose punishment exceeding the most serious allegations.”