Inmunidad eclesiástica (DCH) (Ecclesiastical Immunity (DCH))

No. 2020-13

In this article we study the Ecclesiastical Immunity, an institution subject to canonical and secular normativities whose purpose was the protection of the indemnity of persons and ecclesiastical goods. To achieve the proposed objective, we refer to the legal-historical processes that shaped it within the framework of the Canon law and its receptions and regulations by the various secular orders. At the same time we propose a description of the three main aspects in which this figure of Immunity could appear: local, royal and personal. This classification presented a series of singular elements in Hispanic America that are described and exemplified along the article. We analyse the legal singularities of the so-called “ecclesiastical asylum“ and its significance particularly in the Indias. By this legal figure, criminals who took refuge in sacred places were outside the scope of secular justice until the culprit was extradited, which in itself denotes its significance in historical perspective.

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