Manual de teoría del delito

This work presents, in simple terms, the evolution of criminal law and how the protections it provides are inalienable, since they were not established recently but rather developed over the course of centuries–albeit under different names–in Italy, Spain, Germany, and Latin America. In four chapters, it provides the essential information on the principle conceptions of crime from the times of their origins. Chapter 1 describes the primary antecedents to the formation of modern criminal theory: criminal law in the ancient world, Roman criminal law, criminal law in the Middle Ages, and criminal law during the Enlightenment. Chapter 2 describes criminal law in Italy, outlining the fundamental aspects of the classical school, the positivist approach, terza scuola, technical-legal doctrine, and a summary of the most recent advances including the influence of German dogmatism and garantismo, the prioritization of fundamental individual rights. Chapter 3 discusses criminal law in Germany, its antecedents, and the legal positivist, natural causality, neocausalist, finalist, moderate functionalist, and radical functionalist approaches.

There is special emphasis in this section on the contributions of criminal theorists such as BINDING, BELING and BIRNBAUM, who are not always studied in the context of modern theories of crime. Finally, chapter 4 presents more recent positions such as the flexibilization of criminal law, criminal law of the enemy, three-speed criminal law and the constitucionalization of criminal law. The latter discussion includes an analysis of the constitutional system of criminal law based on the principles of legality, equality, proportionality, culpability, and human dignity.