Understanding Legal Claims and Jurisdiction in Civil Proceedings
Ball 3: Understanding Legal Claims
Claim
Preliminary Notions: Elements of the Process
Every process has subjective and objective elements and involves a particular activity.
The Subjective Element
This is represented by the persons empowered to initiate, drive, demand, and pronounce it. In primary contentious proceedings, these are the judicial or arbitral bodies and the parties involved.
The judiciary, as the holder of public power, holds a superior position. It can impose the observance of certain behaviors through individual acts of creating rules. Furthermore, when the body is of a judicial nature, it holds the exclusive lawful use of coercion.
Contentious proceedings necessarily involve two parties: the plaintiff (actor) and the defendant.
- Plaintiff (Actor): The one who makes the claim to be satisfied by the judicial body.
- Defendant: The person against whom the claim is made.
Both parties are hierarchically equal and subordinate to the judicial body.
In voluntary processes, the primary subjects are petitioners who are subordinate to the court.
Full compliance with procedural functions requires the involvement of other individuals who act as auxiliaries to the court, parties, or petitioners. These individuals can be termed secondary subjects.
The Objective Element
The objective element of the process can be a claim or an extracontentious request. This depends on whether the judicial body is required to resolve a conflict or to form, join, or agree to the effectiveness of a legal relationship.
The claim and the extracontentious request form the object of litigation and voluntary processes, respectively.
The claim that initiates the civil process concerns a legal relationship or status under substantive law that doesn’t transcend the private interests of the parties. Therefore, the plaintiff may withdraw their claim or waive the right claimed, the defendant may acquiesce to the plaintiff’s claim, and both parties may compromise.
This availability of procedural purpose reflects the parties’ individual rights and further distinguishes civil proceedings from criminal proceedings.
The Activity
This comprises all acts performed by the parties to the proceedings from the beginning to the final decision.
Procedural Notion of Object
This is the subject matter around which the initiation, development, and conclusion of the process revolve. The object is represented by one or more claims or extracontentious requests, depending on whether it’s a contentious proceeding or a voluntary process.
The Claim Procedure (Concept)
This is the act by which a claim is brought before a court (or possibly an arbitral tribunal) against another person, seeking the resolution of a dispute between that person and the claimant.
This act involves the claim of certain conduct from a decision-making body, portrayed as a declaration of intent or petition. The recipient is a decision-making body.
It must be brought before a person other than the claimant, involving at least two parties.
The legal nature of the claim procedure requires it to contain a statement of law or the legal consequences of a particular factual situation, regardless of whether this claim aligns with the current regulatory system. The claim can be founded or unfounded.
Elements of the Claim
The claim procedure consists of subjective and objective elements (object and cause) and involves an activity split into three dimensions: place, time, and form.
Subjects
Every claim has three subjects: the person making the claim, the person against whom it’s formulated, and the person to whom it’s formulated. The first two are the active and passive subjects of the claim (plaintiff, defendant, performer, and executed), while the third is represented by a recipient body that must satisfy the claim through either acceptance or rejection.
Active Subject
The active subject must be individualized. The law requires the expression of their name, signature, or name by which they act, and their address. The passive subject must also be individualized.
Purpose
This is the legal effect pursued through the claim. There are two perspectives: immediate and mediate.
- Immediate Object: The type of pronouncement sought.
- Mediate Object: The desired outcome or legal consequence.
Cause or Basis of the Claim Title
This is the invocation of a particular factual situation to which the plaintiff assigns a specific legal consequence. It acts as the supporting reason, delimiting the scope within which the judge must assess the case.
Activity
The dimensions of time, manner, and place coincide with the place, time, and form of the process in which the claim is asserted. The court will have jurisdiction over the respective process, and the time of the act is the same as the process intended to address the subject in dispute, as assigned by law.
Requirements of the Claim
The claim has two requirements: admissibility and fundability.
- Admissibility: When it’s possible to verify its contents and issue a ruling on the merits of the matter before the court.
- Fundability: When, due to its content, it’s appropriate for a decision favorable to the claimant.
Requirements for Admissibility
- Extrinsic Procedural Requirements: Concerning the subject, object, and cause.
- Fiscal Requirements: Limited to the payment of taxes levied by the tax law proceedings.
Extrinsic Requirements of Admissibility
- With Respect to the Subject: Requires a legitimate interest in the claim and the right to contradict it. This ensures the judicial activity of the state is engaged only when necessary.
- Fundability of the Claim: Once the conditions of admissibility are verified, the judge can rule on the merits of the claim and determine if it’s founded. This occurs when the claim is appropriate for a favorable decision based on its content, which is represented by a concrete factual situation attributed to a given legal effect.
Resistance to the Claim
Against the positive attitude of the claim and the prosecution, there’s a negative attitude that aims to prevent or challenge the positive claim through an opposing and incompatible claim.
There are two ways to perform this task in civil proceedings:
- Defense: Any act that tends towards the negative assertion of the claim.
- Exception: Any means used by the respondent to obtain the rejection of the request made by the plaintiff.
Classification of the Claim
Claims can be classified based on the type of sentence they generate:
- Declarative-Right: To clarify a situation of uncertainty.
- Executive: To pursue the fulfillment of a previously documented obligation.
- Measures: To secure a fact or law to eventually enforce a favorable ruling.
- Conviction: To impose an obligation to give, do, or not do something to another person.
- Constitutive: To create, modify, or extinguish legal consequences.
Claims can also be classified based on the rights they protect:
- Heritage Rights
- Personal Rights
- Royal Rights
- Pecuniary Rights
- Political Rights
- Marital Status Rights
- Health Rights
Extracontentious Procedural Request
The purpose of a voluntary process is not a claim but an extracontentious request.
Concept: An extracontentious request is the act by which a claim is brought before a judicial body, in the interest of the petitioner, seeking the issuance of a pronouncement that forms, joins, or agrees to the efficacy of a certain private legal relationship.
Ball 4: Jurisdiction and Competence
Jurisdiction (Concept)
The power granted to the judiciary to attribute to the law and enforce it.
Competence (Concept)
The scope and limits of jurisdiction. It’s the faculty that the law grants to address a certain set of issues.