Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
Procedural Penal Law 1
Other languages of instruction: Catalan
Teaching staff
With the aim to provide the best academic support to the student, the opening ours will be Wednesdays from 12:00 to 14:00, after the lesson, in the office D11-B600 of the 6th floor of the Beta Building in the Barcelona Campus.
Furthermore, the student can always ask for tutoring out of the stablished timetable and in the same location prior appointment through email to the professor of the subject.
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 system of this subject will be continuous assessment according to the following criteria:
1) Final exam: it represents the 50% of the overall mark of the subject.
The exam will consist of 5 questions in which the student will have to take the position of a given party at a criminal procedure and apply the acquired knowledge.
The exam will be given an overall score out of 10 and a 5 is required to pass the continuous assessment evaluation.
There will be an additional question in which the student is meant to show excellence in his/her learning. If he/she answers correctly to the question, he/she can have up to 2 more points.
There is also a partial and voluntary exam in the middle of the term in order to check how the learning procedure is going and for the student to see the type of questions he/she will face in the final exam. All the topics studied in this exam will also be included in the preparation for the final one.
2) Activities: they represent the 25% of the overall mark of the subject.
There will be compulsory and voluntary activities.
Each voluntary activity can increase up to 0,25 the average mark the student has in this field.
A 5 in the average mark of the activities is required to pass the continuous assessment evaluation.
3) Participation in class and in Moodle: it represents the 15% of the overall mark of the subject.
With the aim to guarantee a real continuous assessment adequate to the Bologna Plan, the attitude of the student in the classroom must be: active, collaborative, open-minded, inclusive and prone to discussion among all the students in order to maximize the learning.
Needless to say, the comments and interventions must be of special interest for the classroom and the subject.
The participation in forums regarding news and questions of interests in Moodle will be included in this point.
4) Class attendance: it represents the 10% of the overall mark of the subject.
The attendance is the first step for the learning process of this subject which will give the student tools in his/her future as a law expert. That being said, it must by an active attendance according to the explanation in the previous item.
A 5 in the average mark of attendance is required to pass the continuous assessment evaluation.
Second call
Those students who have not passed the continuous assessment can take the second call exam with the particularity that this will only represent 70% of the final mark. The other 30% will come from the mark obtained in the continued assessment that every student must participate in. The structure of the exam will be the same as the final exam.
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.