Form and substance in the probatory reasoning. scope of control on the evidence assesment by way of the recourse for annulment regarding criminal law matters

Abstract

This article analyses the interpretation the Chilean jurisprudence has construed of the annulment causes by omission of some of the requirements of the criminal judicial ruling regarding the justification of facts and it especially examines the tendency to distinguish between the formal control of the probatory reasoning and the substantial control of the assessment carried out by the Oral Trial Court, to exclude the latter from the legitimate scope of the motion. The author states that this restriction lacks legal-procedural justification that can only be explained because it is adhered to a subjectivist interpretation of the standard of the criminal evidence which is in conflict with other practices of the Courts that sustain it.