Article 02: ANISTIA IN CRIMINAL LAW

Abstract

Of the species of sovereign indulgence, amnesty has the most ample and beneficial effects. In a traditional characterization, it can be said that the amnesty is an act of state sovereignty that is translated in the total forgetfulness of the criminal infraction. Characterized as forgetfulness, it is affirmed that the amnesty makes the criminal infraction disappear, as if it had never been committed. Paradigmatic is the teaching of Aurelino Leal, who says that in amnesty "legally the facts cease to exist; Parliament passes a sponge on them. Only history collects them. " The amnesty refers to facts committed by certain individuals, and is not granted purely and simply for certain persons, although it may require subjective conditions to be applied to the defendant, defendant or convicted. As amnesty must be linked to facts, and can not be aimed at individuals individually, it is said to have an impersonal character. The subjective conditions that may be required by the amnesty must always be "oriented by the general sense, and not with reference to a particular person". The amnesty extinguishes, it makes disappear the committed fact, but the incriminating criminal type subsists.