LIQUID CRIMINAL JUSTICE (FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF BAUMAN)

Abstract

The social reality of the XXI Century is liquid (in the Baumanian sense of the term), plenty of fear —even panic— and risks of any kind. Complex and rapidly evolving modern societies have directly favoured the «liquefaction» of the classic Criminal Justice. Globalization and the presence of new supranational and international actors, the loss of State sovereignity, the growing role awarded to Police in the prevention of «crime» as well as in criminal process, the international criminality (terrorism, drugs and human trafficking…), the control of the political power by the market, the discourse of fear and the subsequent quest for security and order present in many places of the world underline the process of securitization that many societies are suffering and have an enormous impact in the understanding and practice of criminal justice. The tiny balance between «individual freedom» and security has broken in favour of the second one. Criminal Law is becoming omnipresent nowadays and this has a direct impact on criminal procedure and forces its reshaping. New values are in the public arena: the search for more efficiency, reduction of proceedings, support to extrajudicial agreements and the growing exploration of a criminal procedure model with two faces: soft and comfortable for «us», harsh and rough for «the other»