Promoter of Justice and his Participation in Criminal Cases

Abstract

Protecting the public good lies at the grounds of the establishment of the office of the promoter of the public good. One should note that the protection of the public good concerns concrete persons and the whole community touched by the violence of the law.

The office of the promoter of justice is not derived directly from the Roman law. Despite similarities to offices, allowed for by the Roman law and the church law in the first millennium of Christianity, “it is commonly assumed that this figure goes back to bishopric prosecutors or prosecutors that were occupied in prosecuting crimes in the thirteenth century.”

At the level of the investigating trial (inquisitorial; the name is derived from inquiro – I inquire) there emerges the figure of the promoter of justice as promovens in a criminal lawsuit to conduct inquisitio criminalis. Its predecessors are fiscalis or promotor. They were established in diocesan curias to safeguard the public good.

The investigating (inquisitorial) trial is credited with the establishment of a permanent function, i.e. a person responsible pro legis tutela. The role of the promoter of justice dates back to this private figure responsible for investigation. With time he became indispensable in the defence of the public good.

The duties of the promoter of justice, called procuratores fiscales or advocati fiscales, in the Roman Curia were defined and ordered by papal decrees.

The instruction of the Congregation of Bishops and the Religious of 11^th June 1880 played a great importance in the history of canon criminal law. Its injunction was to establish a fiscal prosecutor (promoter of justice) in all dioceses. His duty was to protect the public good and ensure conformity with the church law.

In the Code of Canon Law of 1917 in can. 1586 the legislator for the first time used the term promotor iustitiae (in place of the former terms procurator or promotor fiscalis) for the description of a court-appointed person who is a responsible for the protection of church norms in contentious cases.

The promoter of justice levels indictment against a criminal. Accordingly, all the documents of the initial investigation should be passed over to the promoter of justice, so that he could get acquainted with the crime and formulate at the same time accusation, submitting it together with the files to the judge. The justification of accusation that allows to file a suit should result from the evidences collected during the initial investigation. This is conducted in order to find the perpetrator of a crime.

The protection of the public good is the reason why the promoter of justice should be present in tribunals. In his address to the Auditors of the Roman Rota John Paul II presented the conception of a Church which defends the right of the faithful and protects the public good. This ecclesiological-legal vision is a condition for the overall development of the human person. The public good (bonum commune) is the reason why we should be concerned about the conformity with church laws. Of their nature, as the definition of a church law says, they constitute “ordinatio rationis ad bonum commune” and at the moment of their promulgation they are designed to protect the public good.

The Code of Canon Law of 1983 endows the promoter with all competencies with regard to the criminal law, especially as regards the meting out of punishments.