Government Subsidiary Civil Liability for Crimes Committed by Law Enforcement Officers

This paper analyses the government’s subsidiary civil liability for crimes committed by law enforcement officers. The police need to use firearms to carry out their duties in line with the Constitution and the law but, although this is in society’s interest in the vast majority of cases, there are some specific instances where substantial risks are involved. From the perspective of legal doctrine and case law, we analyse how the public authorities respond to these and other cases, of torture and illegal detention, for example, distinguishing between unlawful and wrongful acts that officers commit while on duty or not since, in the latter case, it is more difficult to specify the authorities’ subsidiary civil liability.