WHAT IS JURISDICTION?
Jurisdiction is an attribute that implies power, empire, and power. That is why whoever has jurisdiction has the power to impose his will on others.
In this sense, it is the state itself that confers it, and who, in turn, has multiple attributions tending to satisfy the needs of the community.
Therefore, those who act through the state are the judges or arbitrators, representing the state, who will decide a matter in which the interested parties who come before the judge want justice to be done.
In this article, we will analyze the grammatical meaning of jurisdiction, some background, definition, and the types of jurisdiction that exist in procedural law.
WHAT IS THE GRAMMATICAL MEANING OF THE WORD JURISDICTION?
The word “judge” comes from the expression “judiciary”, that is, Judge or Arbitrator.
BACKGROUND OF THE JURISDICTION.
As we all know, most of the antecedents of our Latin American law come from Roman law, Eugene Petit, points out that: “In Roman law, there were officials in charge of the judicial organization who were given the generic name of magistrates, the which were invested with a “potestas” or “imperium”.”
(José Fernández González, Elementary Treaty of Roman Law, Editorial Saturnino Calleja, SA, Madrid, 1924, P. 613)
Such power or empire, in turn, was subclassified into several attributions:
- 1.- Imperium Memurum: This consisted of the power to administer and perform police functions and apply corporal punishment.
- 2.- Imperium Mixtum: This consisted of the power of the administration of justice.
- 3.- Jurisdiction: This consisted of the power to dictate the law, something like legislative power. What Is Jurisdiction?
WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF JURISDICTION?
It is an attribute that implies power, empire, and power. That is why whoever has jurisdiction has the power to impose his will on others.
In this sense, it is the state itself that confers it, and who, in turn, has multiple attributions tending to satisfy the needs of the community.
Thus, those who act through the state are the judges or arbitrators, representing the state, who will decide a matter in which the interested parties who come before the judge want justice to be done.
Now then, Giuseppe Chiovenda, points out that jurisdiction is: “the function of the State whose purpose is the performance of the specific will of the law through the substitution, by the activity of public bodies, of the activity of individuals or of other public bodies, either by affirming the existence of the will of the law or by making it practically effective.”
(Giusseppe Chiovenda, Institutions of Civil Procedural Law, Vol. II, Editorial Revista de Derecho Privado, Madrid, 1954, P. 2)
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF JURISDICTION?
There are different ways of classifying jurisdiction, but the main ones are as follows:
- A.- VOLUNTARY JURISDICTION AND CONTENTIOUS JURISDICTION:
In voluntary jurisdiction, there is no controversy since the interested parties go directly before a Court to request its intervention because the objective law derives the need for the intervention of the court, without a contradictory or controversial issue having been promoted between the parties.
On the other hand, contentious jurisdiction requires the existence of a dispute between parties for it to arise. It is the most common type of jurisdiction.
The difference between these jurisdictions is that voluntary jurisdiction is not contentious, since it begins with a process called voluntary jurisdiction, that is, whoever promotes it is forced to do so, there is a forcing of their will, because if they do not promote voluntary jurisdiction does not obtain a result of legal certainty or legal advantage that will result from the respective administrative procedure.
While the contentious jurisdiction there is a lawsuit or controversy that must be challenged by the subjects who claim facts and rights in an antagonistic position.
- B.- FEDERAL, LOCAL, AND CONCURRENT JURISDICTION:
Federal jurisdiction is that which corresponds to a Federal Judicial Power.
The local jurisdiction corresponds to a Judicial Power of each one of the States of the Republic
The concurrent jurisdiction is the one that allows both powers (federal and local) to intervene as the case may be. That is to say, if the dispute is about civil or criminal matters revolves around the compliance and application of federal laws and international treaties, however, if the dispute only affects the interests of individuals, the Local Powers may be heard.
