Intersections between colonialism and criminal procedure law in Latin America:

an epistemological and criminal policy proposal

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the existing relationships between colonialism and criminal procedural law, highlighting the need to add discussions about decolonialism to the discipline's debates, especially in the context of criminal procedural reforms that have occurred in Latin American countries. The analysis is based on the work of Eugênio Raúl Zaffaroni, with an emphasis on his latest book, " Colonialismo y Derechos Humanos: Apuntes para una historia criminal del mundo". Two fronts of discussion are pointed out as deserving to be incorporated and deepened in criminal procedural debates. On the one hand, the epistemological front, focused on constructing a marginal and decolonial knowledge. On the other hand, criminal policy front, which highlights colonialism as the guiding thread of the history of the criminal justice system in our region. The incorporation of such discussions into debates about criminal procedural reforms aims to contribute to the construction of criminal policies aimed at reducing the historically existing gap between the being and the ought to be of criminal procedure in our region and to construct a less selective and violent criminal justice model.