Testigos (DCH) (Witnesses (DCH))

No. 2017-08

The paper focuses on one of the three kinds of evidence that litigants were supposed to use to prove their intentions, as well as judges to investigate a case and pronounce their judgement: witness testimonies. We analyze the set of rules that were established to guarantee the validity of the statements, as well as their correct assessment by judges. It will be emphasized that canonical law focused on three basic aspects: the selection of the witnesses according to their age, gender, quality, and relationship to the litigants, the formal procedures used to examine the witnesses and, finally, the punishments for perjuring. Although those norms were in large part inspired by Castilian law, some variations were introduced in Spanish America and the Philippines in order to address the issue of distances, on the one hand, and that of indigenous testimony, on the other.

Note: Downloadable document is available in Spanish.