What authorities can prosecute business crimes, and are there different enforcement authorities at the national and regional levels?
Under Spanish Law the only authority that is entitled to prosecute business crimes are the Criminal Courts. The judge initiates the proceedings as soon as he notices a crime might have been committed, but the accusation (public or private) must continue. The judge does not have the authority to accuse so the role of the public accusation in our system is essential during the proceedings. In Spain the proceedings are divided in two different phases: (i) the investigation phase; and (ii) the oral trial. In the first phase mentioned the judge is in charge of managing the process in order to clarify the facts and decide either to continue and open the oral trial or to close the case since not enough evidences have been found. The public prosecutor, the police and any other agency or individuals will be assisting the judge for the investigation and any measure to be taken will need the explicit consent of the judge.
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