The Article 708 LECRIM: A Non-Existent Limitation to the Cross-Examination

Abstract

The form to celebrate the interrogation of witnesses during the trial against the independence leaders introduced an unknown novelty. Lawyers from the contrary part of whom had called the witness could only ask about the reason why the litigant brought them to the procedure. The decision, with scarce remote precedents in historical comparative law, limited strongly the scope of the interrogations, what opens some serious doubts concerning the right of defense, which is also essential to consider that the rules of the due process have been respected. This is a fundamental point in any procedure, but especially in this one where there is likely the parts stand before the European Court of Human Rights, and prior to that before the Constitutional Court