Why it is indispensable to review the foundations of criminal law
Worldwide, readaptation operates poorly because it is not value-based and does not use education. Among the challenges is to judge with a gender perspective in the adversarial criminal justice system. Human rights are affected by the lack of a current constitutional framework.
Readaptation in the world operates poorly because it is not value-based and does not use education. Judging from a gender perspective in the adversarial criminal justice system is one of the challenges. The lack of a current constitutional framework affects human rights.
In the world the prison sentence is not fulfilling its function because there are still the same number, or more, of criminals; if the number of criminals does not decrease, what is the function of prison, said Raúl Carrancá y Rivas, professor emeritus of the UNAM, while participating in the work of the II International Virtual Congress of Criminal Law "Carlos Daza Gómez" In Memoriam, inaugurated by Leonardo Lomelí Vanegas, Secretary-General of the National University.
For this reason, the foundations of Criminal Law must be revised; to forget it would be to return to barbarism and renounce principles of enormous philosophical solidity, he said, accompanied by the director of the Faculty of Law (FD), Raúl Contreras Bustamante.
In the opening ceremony at a distance, Lomelí Vanegas said that the best way to honor the memory of the university academic Carlos Daza Gómez is to give continuity to this Congress, which was his initiative because he was also a tireless promoter of relations between the National University, the University of Salamanca, the Complutense University of Madrid and other houses of study in Ibero-America, added the secretary before the son of the honoree, Carlos Héctor Daza Zaragoza.
In 36 working tables, 10 master conferences, five tributes to specialists in Criminal Law, and a posthumous tribute, jurists will have the opportunity to exchange experiences, update learning and strengthen academic exchange links, he said.
"It is certainly a celebration of Criminal Law, an activity that shows the excellence of this area in the Law School; an excellent way to give continuity to an exceptional work such as that of Dr. Carlos Daza Gómez," he said before the Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), Norma Lucía Piña Hernández, who emphasized:
Judging from a gender perspective in the adversarial criminal justice system is part of the challenges that must be faced. This justice delivery is not exclusive to the detriment of women, as there are asymmetrical relationships, prejudices, and stereotype patterns that affect them as well as men. In addition, it must be observed when she is both victim and defendant.
Contreras Bustamante explained that 154 specialists from 11 Latin American countries, among them Spain, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, the United States, Costa Rica, Brazil, and Mexico, are participating in this activity which brings together more than 10,000 people on various topics such as public safety, abortion, gender violence, prevention of money laundering and human trafficking.
Defense of social interests
Continuing his presentation, the professor emeritus of the UNAM pointed out that Criminal Law is based on the premise of basing the action or conduct on a rule of behavior. If it does not comply with its function, manifested in Article 18 of the Constitution, it fails in its entire structure.
This precept prescribes as essential the social readaptation of the sentenced person. The purpose of this branch of law is to readapt the accused; if it does not achieve this, it fails in its function. If the fundamental purpose is to punish the action that has violated a rule of conduct and this does not occur, it fails in everything that composes it to fully manifest itself in defense of the higher interests of society.
If we consider how prisons operate in Mexico, there is no doubt that we are facing a "depressing and negative" landscape. Readaptation is based on the premise that the sentenced person must be adequately prepared for his or her return to the bosom of society, he said.
Readaptation in Mexico and the world operates badly because it is not value-based and, at the bottom, it does not resort to education, to what should be a truly new position of the sentenced person to face a group of superior values that would guide him/her in the development of his/her personality. If this is not manifested, we are in the presence of an absolute and resounding failure, he reiterated.
The purpose of Criminal Law is not to "punish for the sake of punishing", which would be tantamount to revenge but to re-educate, to reinstate the sentenced person in the bosom of society. But, if the latter is negative, what would that object be? Faced with this question, the foundations of this right must be reviewed, although it is not easy to offer a solution, he acknowledged.
It is beyond doubt, continued Carrancá y Rivas, that it protects the highest hierarchical juridical goods. If we forget them and do not give them their due place in the sequence of progress in culture and civilization, we renounce a great part of our destiny. Later, the Secretary-General of the Complutense University of Madrid, Araceli Manjón-Cabeza Olmeda, said that the Congress shows that despite the pandemic, the University continues to work and has had to reinvent itself supported by social networks. The University, she insisted, is even more necessary today.
Contreras Bustamante pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic shows that in all countries there is a need for greater investment in education, science, technology, health, and adequate means for the efficient enforcement of justice. The lack of a current constitutional framework also affects human rights, in addition to the enormous economic losses, unemployment, and the worsening of violence against women, among others, he concluded.
