"First instance judges spend a lot of time hearing... routine cases," he explained.
First, the case against the former general was brought by an attorney general, Claudia Paz y Paz; and it has been tried by first instance judges, including Jazmín Barrios, who each showed determination and courage in braving threats of violence to do their jobs.
An important but subsidiary point concerns the extent to which the appellate court will interfere with the judgment of a first instance judge in striking this balance: is it closer to the exercise of a discretion or the making of a determination of law?
Reforms are of course necessary for a better institutional framework; enlargement of the present structure of 10,000 first-instance judges; and adequate professional training of personnel, so that the judiciary is equipped for the challenges placed before it.
It reinstated a first-instance judge, who wants to set the case back 17 months.
In the first instance the judge, advised by a panel of experts, will look at future regulation before turning to specific allegations of corruption or lawbreaking.
Proconsuls, for example, were often both judges of first instance and appeal, and the governors of some provinces took appellant cases from their neighbors.
During his years on the bench, Sir John Owen, who has died aged 85, presided over a number of landmark cases, notably as the judge at first instance in the 1991 case of R v R, when it was held that a husband could be found guilty of raping his wife.
The Romantic Novel of the Year award, now in its 48th year, is judged in the first instance by 90 members of the reading public who create a longlist of the submitted novels (189 this year) by scoring each book on criteria covering romantic content, readability, characters, plot, dialogue, style and setting.
The judge said this was the first instance of the government's seeking disgorgement under the Sherman antitrust law.
He was appointed a judge in the National Courts of First Instance, then in 1891 at the Court of Appeal; in 1899, with British help, he became muftī of Egypt.
