Child Welfare Information Centre : summary of the legislative and administrative series of documents of the Child Welfare Information Centre published in 1938.

Date:
1939
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Child Welfare Information Centre : summary of the legislative and administrative series of documents of the Child Welfare Information Centre published in 1938. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sel SRT Guatemala. Juvenile Courts.—I,aw of November 15th, 1937 (Dzano de Centro America, Volume XXI, No. 20, November 18th, 1937) (document C.Q.S./P.E./C.1.46, Legislative and Admimstrative Series, 41). By the terms of this law, minors under 15 years of age accused of any offences or misdemeanours (faltas) will come exclusively before special courts. These juvenile courts are to be presided over by judges of first instance of the criminal branch, and are to include four other persons nominated by the Department of the Interior and Justice, over 25 years of age, resident in the town where the judges sit, of good reputation, and regarded as suitable for such duties. The law fixes the procedure to be followed, and authorises the court to decide on and enforce the following measures, according to the case : In the case of minors between 10 and 15 years of age who are profoundly depraved or admittedly dangerous, confinement in a disciplinary reformatory for minors only; in other cases, admonition, internment in an educa- tional establishment, placing in charge of their parents or in a family of recognised respectability, under official supervision, or placing in an instructional establishment. Juvenile courts are also empowered to take such measures as may conduce to the removal of the causes which led to the commission of the acts in the various cases brought before them. If absolutely necessary, the judicial authorities may order the detention of a minor under 15 years of age, but such detention may not be in common prisons, and in the absence of an appropriate establishment the minor is to be released on bail to the care of his own family or to trust- worthy persons. Conflicts of jurisdiction between juvenile and ordinary courts are to be resolved by the competent chamber of the court of appeal, or, where necessary, by the Supreme Court of Justice, in accordance with the provisions of the constitutive law of the judiciary.
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