The “modern” criminal law and the expansionist criminal policy

Abstract

The law, as a mechanism of protection and pacification of social relations, cannot remain indifferent to the changes. The society is renewed and brings new needs, new customs and new thoughts. Thus, there is no claim that the criminal law should remain static and immutable. The Criminal Law should be understood in the light of the characteristics in which it is applied. Organized, modernized and transnational, the emerging criminality can damage both individuals and states and their institutions, what leads us to discuss whether traditional or nuclear (“classic”) Criminal Law – specially conceived and developed for solving interindividual cases with traditional or specific legal interests – could, without dissociating itself from its principles and, crucially, its classic guarantees respond to complex social concepts in a globalized risk society, or if the criminal law should be granted a new face (“modern” Criminal Law) improving it to fit this new phase of the world economy, excemptioning certain guarantees, creating opportunities for a greater effectiveness in combating this new delinquency.