In January 2005 a new reform to the criminal justice system came into force in
Colombia. As a result of this reform, that implied a change in the structure of the 1991
Constitution, the system was transformed from being an accusatorial European system to be
a sort of American accusatorial system.
Initially the reform started in the cities of Bogota
and the Coffee Area of Colombia. In 2006, it will start in Medellin and Cali. According to
the defenders of the reform, the Colombian legal system has proven to be unable to deal
with the huge amount of criminal acts that are committed every day in the country. For the
reformers, we need to modernize the Colombian Criminal Justice System to respond to the
challenges of new forms of criminality and the challenges of globalization. Crime and
inefficiency of the criminal justice system (from now on CJS) not only affect the stability
of the country, but at the same time it is considered to be an obstacle to its development.
Several questions arise when we see this reform: why is the criminal justice system
transformed as a whole? How is this connected to the war on drugs where some aspects of
the CSJ were changed as a result of American pressures? What are the agencies involved
in the reform? What kind of development is promoted? What is the role of the law and the
state in this process?
We hope to provide answers to these questions and show the role of the law and the
state in the project of globalization. The role of the law and the criminal justice system has
been hardly analyzed from a world system perspective. In analysis of the state and the law,
the stress is put in the role of private or constitutional law, but criminal law, the criminal
justice system, and the studies of crime and criminality are hardly mentioned. When
criminal law is analyzed it is done from an instrumental perspective, showing the role of
criminal law in protecting the interests of the bourgeoisie.
Other perspectives analyze the
1
The Colombian system is depicted as inquisitorial, but in reality it is a European version of an accusatorial
system. The model is based on the prosecution as part of the judiciary or the executive and the existence of
some judges with the power to decide about the accusation. In Colombia the investigation is done by the
Prosecution that has some judicial powers, but there are some judicial controls to its actions. In the trial, the
prosecution functions in the same way as in the United States.
2
Mauricio Gonzalez. Introduction to Reforma Constitucional a la Justicia Penal. (Bogota: CEJ, 2002). Pp.
14.
3
Jock Young et al. Critical Criminology; Jock Young et al. The New Criminology. For a Social Theory of
Deviance. (Londres and Boston: 1972). Roberto Bergalli. “Criminologia y Epistemologia en los diez ultimos
anos en Argentina. En AAVV. Reunion Preparatoria del IX Congreso Internacional de Criminologia.
(Panama: Universidad de Panama, 1982); Emilio Garcia Mendez. Autoritarismo y Control Social:
Argentina, Chile, Uruguay (1970-1980). (Buenos Aires: Hammurabi, 1985). E.B. Pashukanis. Pashukanis:
selected writings on Marxism and Law. (London/New York: Academic Press, 1980).
2
Convention