City of Buenos Aires Expands Its Criminal Jurisdiction

The City of Buenos Aires has taken another step toward consolidating its institutional autonomy following the execution of two agreements between the Argentine Ministry of Justice and the City’s Ministry of Justice. These agreements formalize the transfer of additional criminal jurisdiction from the national courts to the local judiciary.

The transfer will include the budget allocations necessary to implement it and will enter into force 120 days after both the Argentine Congress and the City of Buenos Aires Legislature ratify it.
 

Transferred offenses

Through the first agreement, Fourth Agreement for the Progressive Transfer of Criminal Jurisdiction from the National Judiciary to the Judiciary of the City of Buenos Aires, the City will assume jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the following offenses, which currently fall within the jurisdiction of the national courts:

Offenses against honor:

• Slander and defamation.

Offenses against sexual integrity:

• Sexual abuse (articles 119 and 120 of the Argentine Criminal Code).
• Sexual abuse resulting in death (article 124).
• Corruption of minors (article 125).
• Aggravated promotion or facilitation of prostitution (article 126).
• Exploitation of prostitution (article 127).
• Abduction (article 130).

Offenses against personal liberty:

• Reduction to servitude (article 140).
• Unlawful deprivation of liberty (articles 141 and 142).
• Child abduction, inducement of a minor to leave home, and related offenses (articles 146 to 149).
• Coercive threats and aggravated forms thereof (article 149 bis, second paragraph, and article 149 ter, subsection
  
  
  1).

Offenses against transportation safety and means of transport and communication:

• Obstructing or interfering with the normal operation of transportation services (article 194).

Offenses under special criminal legislation:

• Legal regime for Intellectual Property (Law 11723).
• Illegal practice of veterinary medicine (Law 14072).
• Protection and conservation of wildlife (Law 22421).
   

The second agreement transfers all cases currently falling under the Juvenile Criminal and Correctional Courts. As a result, the City’s courts will assume jurisdiction over all non-federal offenses committed by minors, including both adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 and children under the age of 14 in cases requiring protective judicial intervention.

If approved, this would constitute the first comprehensive transfer of juvenile criminal jurisdiction to the City and another significant step in the ongoing process of progressively transferring judicial functions from the national sphere to the local jurisdiction.