Legal Actions and Exceptions: A Comprehensive Overview
Legal Actions
Historical Context of Legal Actions
The concept of legal action stems from a historical instrument where citizens relied on state intervention for justice. The evolution of legal actions can be divided into two periods:
- First Period: Actions involved solemn acts and strict adherence to prescribed legal sentences for judgment execution.
- Second Period: The actio became the formula itself, a written statement guiding the judge’s proceedings.
Legal Nature of the Action
Becerra Baptist defines a right of action as independent of substantive law—the power to seek court intervention for conflict resolution. Two doctrinal theories explain the nature of legal action:
- Classical Theory: Celsus described action as the right to pursue what is due to us in court. Savigny viewed it as the right to judicial protection arising from the infringement of a substantive right, requiring both the existence of a right and its violation.
- Autonomy of Action Theory: This theory posits action as an independent right. Windscheid classified actio as law itself. Muther distinguished between the subjective right of action (private nature) and its public nature (exercised against the state). Couture defined legal action as the right of any subject to seek court satisfaction of a claim. Ugo Rocco considered it a public subjective right, with the state’s intervention ensuring the realization of protected interests.
Elements of Legal Action
- Subjects (Actor): The holder of the action, possessing the legal right to request court action.
- Causa: The interest justifying the action’s exercise to advance the process and obtain a sentence.
- Object: The request for judicial function exercise, expressed through a favorable or unfavorable ruling.
Classification of Actions
- In Rem: The power to use, enjoy, and dispose of a thing.
- In Personam: The power to require a debtor to fulfill an obligation (give, do, or not do).
Classification by Type of Resolution
- Condemnatory: Demands a judgment against specific conduct.
- Declaratory: Removes uncertainty about the existence or absence of a legal relationship.
- Constitutive: Creates, modifies, or extinguishes a right.
- Precautionary: Preserves the status quo of facts and law.
- Executive: Allows immediate action against the debtor’s assets.
Other Classifications
- Named/Unnamed: Based on whether the legislator assigned a specific name to the action.
- Private/Public/Collective: Based on the interests protected (individual, public order, or group interests).
- Diffuse Interest Actions: Protect rights of a group lacking legal personality.
- Material Right Actions: Categorized by the substantive law branch (e.g., civil, commercial).
Legal Exceptions
Ovalle Favela defines “exception” in two ways:
- Broad Sense: The defendant’s right to contradict or oppose the plaintiff’s claim.
- Narrow Sense: Specific issues raised by the defendant against the action.
Couture views exceptions as either specific or abstract rights.
Classification of Exceptions
- Substantive: Based on substantive law rules.
- Adjective/Procedural: Based on procedural rules (e.g., incompetence, lack of standing, lis pendens).
- Dilatory: Delay the decision without affecting the merits.
- Peremptory: Aim to defeat or modify the plaintiff’s claim.
Conditions of Action
Liebman excludes legitimacy to act (legitimatio ad processum) from the conditions of action. Legal interest is a requisite, defined as the useful relationship between the alleged injury and the requested legal protection.
Carnelutti defines “claim” as the subordination of self-interest to a foreign interest.