The criminal jurisdiction of the magistrates
During the early Republic only magistrates had iudicatio, i.e. the power to bring criminal charges against citizens.[486] The tribunes and the quaestors usually dealt with political offences, the aediles prosecuted crimes against public morals and infringements of social legislation and, as was noted before, special magistrates appointed by the consuls, the quaestores parricidii and the duoviri perduellionis, investigated cases of murder and treason respectively.
Furthermore, the pontiffs dealt with cases involving violations of religious norms, such as the neglect of religious duties by ministers of religion. The praetor urbanus initially had jurisdiction over matters concerning public peace and security. But after the introduction of the lex Papiria (of unknown date, probably mid-third century BC) jurisdiction in cases involving persons belonging to the lower classes and slaves was delegated to the tresviri capitales (or tresviri nocturni), minor officials whose duties included policing the city at night and arresting nocturnal criminals, preventing the breaking of fires, superintending the state prisons and carrying out executions.[487] The consuls probably seldom exercised their power of bringing criminal charges. A criminal prosecution could be based on a specific statutory enactment, such as the Law of the Twelve Tables, an established customary rule or an order issued by a state organ. Magistrates tried cases according to either laws or customs (vel legibus vel moribus), although the former were generally given priority. When a person was charged with an offence that entailed capital punishment, the magistrate would usually convict the accused and then leave the sentence to be decided by the comitia centuriata. Minor offences were dealt with by the magistrates in a summary fashion.
More on the topic The criminal jurisdiction of the magistrates:
- The Criminal Jurisdiction of the Senate
- The criminal jurisdiction of the comitia: iudicia populi
- Chapter 4 Criminal Law and Criminal Justice
- Magistrates’ courts
- Imperial Jurisdiction
- The three types of jurisdiction
- Courts of other magistrates
- 2. EDICTS OF MAGISTRATES
- Curbs on rapacity: jurisdiction
- The edicts of the magistrates
- The Edicts of the Magistrates