Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
Procedural Penal Law 1
Other languages of instruction: Catalan
Teaching staff
Introduction
The subject Derecho Procesal Penal I (Criminal Procedure I) immerses the student in the process through which the State is going to apply the Criminal Law previously studied.
In general terms, this discipline intents to provide the student with the knowledge and abilities needed in order to guarantee a fair hearing and effective legal protection in the near labour future.
In this first part of the subject, the principles that inspire the Criminal Procedure and the Fundamental Rights entangled play a major role not only in the first part of the Criminal Procedure focused on the criminal investigation, but also in the Oral Hearing that we will study in Derecho Procesal Penal II (Criminal Procedure II).
Pre-course requirements
It is advisable to have previously passed the subject Procedural Law 1.
Objectives
Are pursued the following objectives:
(i) To know the structure and functioning of the Spanish criminal justice system and to understand correctly the mechanics of the main criminal procedure institutions. It is intended that students understand the matter perfectly, so that they can face the law, explanations of customers and to assimilate smoothly specialized information.
(ii) Knowing how to handle easily and without help each and every one of the institutions of the declaratory criminal proceedings. At the end of the course, they should be able to write complaints, assist the client -in quality of researched-, make good technical defense during the instruction, and intervene in trials fluently.
(iii) Mastering the legal texts, its details, chinks and peculiarities.
Competences/Learning outcomes of the degree programme
- 03 - To be able to express one's ideas and arguments in an orderly and coherent way both in oral and written form (written and oral techniques)
- 04 - To turn in documents that have been formally and thoroughly prepared to high standards
- 06 - To acquire the ability to make decisions
- 11 - To acquire skills for autonomous learning
- 17 - To understand and have knowledge of public and private institutional principles in their origin and as a whole
- 19 - To develop the ability to write legal texts
- 20 - To have knowledge of the basic aspects of legal argumentation
- 22 - To be able to identify and interpret documentation normally used in legal and negotiating settings
- 23 - To identify the state, doctrinal and legal framework of a complex legal issue
- 24 - To acquire the skills to resolve problems and make decisions using relevant information and by applying correct methods while placing the issue within a legal system context
- 25 - To acquire the skills for legal paperwork processing: composing texts, clarifying a position on a matter, use of forms, etc.
- 26 - To master the techniques and other evidence taking stategies
Learning outcomes of the subject
1. Know and understand the basic concepts of criminal procedural law: the purpose of the criminal proceedings, its structure and the complex web of procedural types.
2. Know, identify and understand the different phases of declaratory criminal proceedings, the evidence and the system resources.
3. There will be acquired skills in oral and written communication.
4. There will be developed skills in resolving legal disputes related to the contents of the module.
5. There will be acquired procedural skills.
6. There will be developed habits of neatness in personal presentation and document.
Syllabus
TOPIC 1. The Criminal Procedure: aims and characteristics. Analogies and differences with the Civil Procedure. Systems and principle of the Criminal Procedure.
TOPIC 2. Principles of the procedure. Constitutional and supranational Rights and Guarantees.
TOPIC 3. The determination of the judge: criminal jurisdiction, recusal and abstention
TOPIC 4. The prosecutors in the Criminal Procedure (I): public prosecutor, private prosecutors and the victim
TOPIC 5. The accused parties in the Criminal Procedure
TOPIC 6. The object of the Criminal Procedure. The preliminary rulings
TOPIC 7. The criminal investigation (I): preliminary phase
TOPIC 8. The criminal investigation (II): development of the investigation: acts of investigation. The European Arrest Warrant
TOPIC 9. The criminal investigation (III): measures that limit the Fundamental Rights
TOPIC 10. Interim or precautionary measures
TOPIC 11. The subjective delimitation of the Criminal action: the act of committal for trial and the criminal charge. The end of the criminal investigation
Teaching and learning activities
In person
The teaching methodology of the subject will be lectures in which the student will be required to participate through direct questions in order to generate cognitive doubts that guarantee a real knowledge of our subject.
Moreover, the professor will use problem-based learning (PBL) in those topics in which there is a lot of jurisprudence and debate.
Lastly, the professor will bring real cases in the majority of the lectures.
| TRAINING ACTIVITY | COMPETENCES |
|---|---|
| Presentación en el aula de los conceptos y su aplicación práctica | 17 |
| Actividades en el aula para el seguimiento de los alumnos (individual y en grupo) | 03 06 19 20 22 23 24 25 26 |
| Estudio independiente del alumno | 11 17 20 24 |
| Trabajos individuales y en grupo | 04 19 22 23 24 |
Evaluation systems and criteria
In person
The evaluation of the subject consists of:
1) Exams:
There will be a mandatory partial exam, which will be liberatory. A minimum grade of 5 will be required.
In the case of students who release matter, the average mark between the partial exam and the final will represent 60% of the final mark of the subject.
For the rest of the students, the mark of the final exam will represent 60% of the final mark of the subject.
2) Continuous evaluation:
a) Attendance and participation in classes: represents 10% of the final grade for the subject.
Attendance is the first step for the acquisition of knowledge of Procedural Law applied to the day to day that students will find in their future work. However, it must be an active assistance, so, in order to guarantee a truly continuous and appropriate evaluation to the Bologna Plan, the active attitude of the student in class is essential: punctuality, participatory, collaborative, open, inclusive attitude are expected and discussion among all students to maximize learning of this subject.
b) Practical activities that will consist mainly of analysis of complaints, police reports, sentences, comments on them, legal debates on different issues dealt with in class, oral presentations, etc. These activities will represent 30% of the final grade for the course.
Second call:
In the second call, the exam will compute 70% of the final grade. The structure of the exam will be identical to that of the final exam. 30% of the final mark will correspond to the mark of the continuous evaluation indicated in the previous section.
Regarding the attention to the students, it will be necessary to put that the teacher will attend after an appointment arranged by email with the students.
Bibliography and resources
The main resource to study this subject is the Criminal Procedure Law (LECRIM) - consider that this has to be updated to the time in which the subject is taught.
Moreover, in order to systematize the content of this law, the following manual are recommended:
ARMENTA DEU, T., Lecciones de Derecho procesal penal, Marcial Pons, Madrid, 13ª edition, 2021.
MONTERO AROCA, J., Derecho Jurisdiccional III Proceso Penal, Tirant lo Blanch, Valencia, 27ª edition, 2019.
To work with the cases, the student will be required to use the legal databases available in the digital library of the University.