ARBITRARY REALIZATION OF ONE'S OWN RIGHT

Article 455 of the Penal Code punishes the person who, in order to carry out his own right, acting outside the legal channels, uses violence, intimidation or force in things, shall be punished with a fine of 6 to 12 months, applying the higher penalty in degree if weapons or dangerous objects are used.

This crime punishes conducts that could be constitutive of other crimes already typified in the Penal Code, such as the crime of robbery with violence or intimidation, extortion, threats, coercion… Consequently, the regulation of this crime implies a punitive privilege, consisting in the imposition of a lower penalty than the one that would correspond if we were to apply the mentioned crimes, a privilege that is explained by the fact that the perpetrator acts with the purpose of realizing his own right.

Let’s see it with an example. A worker suffers an accident at work and, due to the lack of payment of the corresponding indemnity by his employer, the worker addresses the latter claiming the payment of the indemnity by means of death threats. This conduct could constitute a crime of threats or coercion, but by demanding the fulfillment of one’s own right, it is punishable with a lesser penalty.