WHAT ARE THE COURTS OF HONOR? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

A court of honor, in its best-known sense, refers to institutions, mainly Spanish, and typically of the military sphere (referring to the army in Spain), in which officers were judged, first, and later also employees of the administration public, professional corporations and unions.

The term court of honor is made up of two words. The word honor represents a concept of different valences, because it is precisely subjective to decide what is honor, and what lack of honor.

The Inquisition Tribunal, Francisco de Goya.

An accepted definition of the term is: "Quality that leads a person to behave in accordance with social and moral norms that are considered appropriate."

In this sense, taking into account honor as a relatively subjective characteristic, subject to the customs and socio-cultural influences of each geographical region, a court of honor would judge a person who may be breaking a so-called code of honor, without this necessarily has legal repercussions.

However, outside Spanish territory, the courts of honor (or courts of honor, from its literal translation from English), have their antecedent in England and the United Kingdom, first during the Middle Ages, and later to judge knights; through the Manorial Court and the Court of Honor, by their English names.

Courts of Honor in England and the United Kingdom

Manorial Courts

During feudal England in the Middle Ages, the so-called Manorial Court were the lowest courts in existence, limited by subject matter and geography.

In these, there were in turn three courts, of which one of them was known as the Court of Honor, which came to be established as the highest court for matters competent to the manorial courts.

Courts of Honor

On the other hand, the Court of Honor, which can be translated as Court of Honor or Court of Honor, was also an official event, constituted to determine different issues related to social protocol, breaches of etiquette, and other allegations of breaches of honor.

In this sense, the honor courts, also known as chivalric courts, dealt with cases concerning contracts and the transfer of goods or properties, although they could also dispute the right to bear coats of arms.

However, these courts did not have the power to collect fines or imprisonment, for which they were almost largely discontinued.

The Courts of Honor in Spain

In Spain, the courts of honor began as exclusively military entities, by the Royal Decree of January 3, 1867.

Likewise, by 1918, the civil servants legislation extended the courts of honor to the public administration and similarly to private institutions and professional unions.

These courts were constituted by people equal to the accused, without judicial powers, and their objective was to judge the dignity (see honor) of the accused person, in order to determine if they deserved to be part of the profession or entity of which they were part.

If deemed unworthy, the accused could not present a defense of any kind against the decision.

The purpose of a court of honor was not to judge any specific act, but to judge the conduct of a defendant and his dignity, naturally, having as a criterion to determine the dignity or honor, or the lack of these, of the person tried, socio-cultural conventions of the time and geography.

In this way, these courts did not seek to protect the honor of the person under trial, but rather the institution or body to which this person belonged, determining as appropriate or not the person to be part of said place.

The sanctions imposed by this system are considered corporate in nature, and not criminal in nature.

The process of abolishing the courts of honor was a process of many years, which was full of exceptions. Thus, in article 95 of the 1931 constitution, all courts of honor were abolished, both civil and military, but, after the civil war, on October 17, 1941, they were reconstituted.

Later, the debate in favor of the suppression of these courts, as occurred in the 1931 constitution, continued, requesting not only that these be eliminated in the civil sphere, but also in the military sphere, the latter request being denied, with which, the courts of honor were suppressed, but still in force in the military sphere.

Thus, these institutions continued in force for the military, until Law 9, of April 21, 1988 on the Plant and Organization of the Military Jurisdiction, emptied the precepts from 1025 to 1046, before left intact in 1980, of the Code of Military Justice, which made references to the Courts of Honor.

Finally, with the arrival of Organic Law 2, military procedure, on April 3, 1989, and later, on November 17, 2005 with Organic Law 5, the so-called Courts of Honor were established as prohibited in the military sphere..

Criteria for judging in a Court of Honor

It should be borne in mind that the criteria or precepts taken into account when judging a person in a court of honor, and subsequently declaring him worthy or unworthy, would vary widely according to the honor code of a society, country or territory; besides the time.

In this sense, the characteristics that could be considered as an unworthy person, for example, in 1900 Spain, would not be the same as those taken into account today.

But, in the same way, the criteria taken into account in Spain at present would not be identical to those applied in another country, or on another continent.

It is also evident that in today's contemporary society, courts of honor cause negative impressions and are taken as unethical, unnecessary or ineffective.

References

1. Court of Honor. (2017, May 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:20, June 25, 2017, from en.wikipedia.org
2. Manorial court. (2017, May 22). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:42, June 25, 2017, from en.wikipedia.org
3. Honor. (2017, April 21). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Consultation date: 10:23, June 25, 2017 from es.wikipedia.org
4. Synopsis article 26 (2011, January). Spanish constitution. Consultation date: 10:46, June 25, 2017 from www.congreso.es.