O sistema de justiça militar penal

Abstract

There is no doubt the crucial role that the armed forces play in the defense and security of the state so, therefore, we must give them due recognition. After more than 100 years of the entry into force of the first Code of Military Justice, there were several changes that have occurred either in the constitutional context, because of the successive constitutional revisions, whether the legal-criminal and disciplinary context. Among these, there is the adoption of a new Code of Military Justice, due to the change of the Law of Organization and Functioning of the Judicial Courts, which, under the Article 213 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, led to the extinction of military courts in time of peace and the creation of specialized branches in the ordinary courts for the trial of strictly military crimes. It was being recognized by castrense community and the legislature, the need to adapt and harmonize the Military Penal Law with the new realities, submitting to general principles of law, while retaining their specificities. In this sense, it has become convenient through a comprehensive approach, describe and characterize the current Code of Military Justice and consecutively the "new" criminal military justice system. Therefore, we set out specifically to explain the rationale of the Military Penal Law before the existence of the general criminal law, through a brief description of the military institution and the values by which it is governed, especially discipline and hierarchy. We also proceed to a comparative analysis between Military Penal Law and general criminal law. However, we only treat some legal institutes, namely: the attempt, probation, determining the extent of the penalty, recidivism and the exclusion causes of illegality and guilt. Clarifying these issues is the objective of this research. Despite the difficulty in finding library materials, the study revealed that much has been done, however, there is still a long way to go to improve the Military Penal Law and captivate Law professionals in the analysis of this topic.

Date of Award	10 Mar 2017
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Germano Marques da Silva (Supervisor)