Reus vel suspectus? On the Status of the Accused and the Suspect in the Roman Criminal Procedure

Abstract

This article aims to answer the question whether such a participant who can be described as the suspect was known in the Roman criminal procedure. The analysed procedure, especially of bringing a charge in the proceedings before quaestiones, as well as the examples of criminal cases settled within the framework of cognitio, quoted in this paper, confirm that the Romans distinguished between the accused and the suspect, even though they did not develop separate terms and definitions to identify these two different procedural roles. An important moment that distinguished the status of the accused person in the Roman criminal procedure was entering his name in the register of the accused (inscriptio inter reos), which took place when the indictment was brought against him. From then on, the accused became reus, that is a rightful party to the proceedings who was able to use his procedural rights fully.

Keywords

• oskarżony
• podejrzany
• quaestiones
• rzymski proces karny
• inscriptio inter reos
• cognitio