Meaning & Definition of contumacy (Concept / What is)

Definition of contumacy


Absentee, from the latin contumacĭa, is the tenacity to persist in error. The term is used in law with regard to the rebellion (or contempt), where the defendant refuses to appear before the tribunal.

The defendant, therefore, causes the absentia when he is absent from the Court to pay the charges brought against him in a statement. The absentia requires attribution of a crime/offence and that the defendant is aware of the charge: disobeying the injunction and not going to the Court, it's an absentia.

One can understand the in absentia as the will of the accused to avoid or even flee from court proceedings, allowing it to be sentenced. Given this attitude, the Court may order the contumacy of the accused, who from that moment can be stopped to be redirected to the procedure and to submit to the tribunal.

There is place in absentia (or contempt) to the tribunal when the accused assumes his attitude before the tribunal, he who avoids at all costs the legal procedure. His absence is a behavior that transmits an opposition towards implicit measures in any process undertaken by the justice.

On the other hand, judges must analyse the causes of the absence of the accused in order to confirm whether he has been in absentia or if his absence is related to other reasons.

In proceedings of the Inquisition, he was known as absentia the condition of those who fled or who were not present when required by the Court. On inquisitorial law, the absentia proved the guilt of the accused.
Translated for educational purposes.
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