Judicial Discretion in Canary Islands In Early Modern Age. The Spanish Criminal Justice in a Border Place
Judicial Discretion in Canary Islands In Early Modern Age. The Spanish Criminal Justice in a Border Place

Author(s): Belinda Rodríguez Arrocha
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Criminal Law
Published by: Правни факултет Универзитета у Источном Сарајеву
Keywords: The Canary Islands; Criminal Justice; Early Modern Age; The Spanish Monarchy; Women;
Summary/Abstract: The main purpose of this paper is to elucidate the impact of judicial discretion in criminal justice during the 17th and 18th centuries, paying special attention to Canary Islands. This Atlantic archipelago was a territory belonging to Spanish Monarchy, and it was an enclave between Africa, Europe and America. For this reason, those islands were considered frontier areas in Early Modern Age and the Contemporary Age. This characteristic manifested itself social reality and daily life. Furthermore, the projection of those factors was notorious in criminal cases. The judicial records pertaining to sexual offences provided illustrative examples of the connection between social problems and certain types of crimes. During this historical era, the judges’ discretion served as a crucial tactic to mitigate the impact of unsystematized royal legislation, while also safeguarding medieval laws that remained in the 18th century. Simultaneously, the judges’ reasoning and the specific circumstances of each case, such as the ages of offender and victim, their social status, or the location of the crime, shaped the judicial decisions without any motivation. In this sense, discretion played a decisive role under the Castilian model of justice. The sources of this essay are the specialized literature, the Early Modern legal and doctrinal works, and the records belonging to the Historical Archive of the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the Historical Archive of the Canarian Museum.

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