What Remains of the Nullum Crimen Nulla Poena Sine Lege Principle? A Legal Argumentation Approach (¿Qué Queda del Principio de Nullum Crimen Nulla Poena Sine Lege? Un Enfoque Desde la Argumentación Jurídica)

Abstract:     
This essay aims to revise the principle of legality in criminal law. It examines the context of its creation, its consolidation in the enlightened Codification, which contributes to understanding and delineating the principle's role for law practitioners. It also examines how the principle's enlightened presumptions have been attacked from various disciplines, e.g. epistemology, linguistics, methodology, logic and philosophy of law, and how these attacks have radically undermined the principle's comprehension and fulfillment. Then, starting from certain critical fundamentals and orientating intuitions sought by the principle, a possible reconstruction of the principle is proposed, starting from the principle's new fundamentals, but with a strong methodological influence, both from a reconstruction perspective of the "norm of principle", as well as its possible application. In this last case, problems of defeasibility and multiculturalism are briefly examined.

Note: Downloadable document is in Spanish.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 90

Keywords: Constitutional guarantee of criminal lawfulness, legal language, irretroactivity, taxativity, methodological logic, defeasibility

Accepted Paper Series