A feminine noun, from the Latin audientĭa, people who hear. Its lexical components are audire (to hear), –nt– (agent) and the suffix -ia (quality).
In Legal Spanish, audiencia refers to the occasion to adduce reasons or evidence that is offered to an interested party in a trial or proceedings, usually in front of a judge or tribunal. If the audiencia is used to produce the proof offered in the demanda or contestación de demanda, we are speaking about an audicencia probatoria, that can be an audiencia testimonial, confesional or pericial.
In Spain, Audiencia, with capital A, is the highest tribunal in a province, for example: Audiencia Provincial (AP) de Málaga. Also, the Audiencia Nacional is a centralised court in Spain with jurisdiction over all the Spanish territory. It is specialised in a certain scope of delinquency, having original jurisdiction over major crimes such as those committed against the Crown and its members, terrorism, forgery of currency, credit and debit cards and checks, some trade crimes committed in more than one region and over drug trafficking, food frauds and medical frauds committed in a nationwide level as well as over international crimes which come under the competence of Spanish courts. As you can see, it is all about hearing.
By the way, to speak about the audience of a concert, in Spanish we prefer to say auditorio, although audiencia is also used. dc
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La palabra del día: Audiencia
