Interview with Jorge de Figueiredo Dias

Abstract

The interviewee examines the function of Criminal Law as a code of freedom and protection of legal interests, criticizing the tendency of judges to act beyond the law in the name of social outcry and the use of Criminal Law as an instrument of government. It analyzes Operation Clean Hands and the risk of corporatization of the judiciary, defending the democratic legitimacy of Superior Councils. It criticizes temporary detention and detention for investigation, arguing that pretrial detention is a merely precautionary institute. It examines the role of the Public Prosecutor's Office, the lawyer's function as an organ of criminal justice, the dark figure of crime, and the need for decriminalization. It defends the global reform of the Criminal Code and rejects political correctness as a criminal legal interest.