CRIMINAL LAW (AND CRIMINAL LAWYERS) IN TIMES OF CRISIS

(Discurso inaugural pronunciado en el Aula Magna de la Universidad de La Habana, el 4 de julio de 2011, con motivo de la Apertura de la VII Escuela de Verano “Juan Carlos Carbonell Mateu”)

Abstract

Th is is the inaugural lecture of the VII Summer School on Criminal Law, University of Havana, dedicated to the author, and delivered on July 4, 2011.
Shaken by a world crisis in both our economy and our values, now more than ever we need to insist on fundamental rights and the principles of criminal law as the foundations on which to build legislation. Neo-authoritarianism needs to be confronted by the requirements of legality, the affi rmation of the constitutionality of legal rights (reserving criminal law for the protection of the most important) and culpability. Freedom has to be treated as of the highest value in the rule of law, a rule of law that becomes unviable if the presumption of innocence is not taken seriously as the starting —and fi nishing— point of the legal process.