Secuestros (DCH) (Sequestration (DCH))

No. 2019-21

This article is concerned with the topic of the sequestration (sequester) as a precautionary measure in the framework of the Roman and Canon judicial procedure, that is related to the delivery of some property under dispute to a third person until the lawsuit be solved. The article presents a study of the main features of the sequestration as a precautionary measure, its finality and legal nature, its differences with other related institutes (ordinary deposit, judicial deposit or seizure, and arrest), its typology, the persons and objects involved in it, its legal regulation, as well as the causes of extinction. A final paragraph is devoted to the figure of the sequestration of persons (arrestatio personarum), an institute which was quite relevant in the Indies, above all in relation to the deposit of women as a protective practice. The topic is connected with the problem of the prision as a security measure (not as a penalty) and its legal treatment, especially in the context of the Inquisition procedure. As a final conclusion, the article sustains that the rules of Canon law in the Indies were mainly similar to those of the ius commune and the Castilian law.

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