The main objective of this subject is to provide an introduction to the concept of criminal law and to the system of penalties. This introduction aims to present the contents of the subject with a critical approach. Therefore, pure legal regulation will be systematically contrasted with a critical and ideal perspective on how criminal law should be organized in a democratic State. In approaching the concept of criminal law and the system of penalties, International Criminal Law and Comparative Law will also be taken into consideration in a systematic way.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES AND ABILITIES



Program : Part 1 (Lessons 1-4)



(Lesson 1) At the end of the academic year, students should have the ability to distinguish between juridical and non-juridical concepts of criminal law. They should also be able to identify different elements of criminal law such as penalty, security measures, crime, penal law and so on.



(Lesson 2-3) International criminal law and, in general, comparative perspectives between different jurisdictions will be a central part of the subject due to increasing trends of globalization that also influence criminal law definition and enforcement.



(Lesson 4) A key point will be the capacity of approaching criminal phenomena both from the perspective of current legislation in force (de lege lata) and from an ideal point of view (de lege ferenda). For that purpose we will draw our attention to some fundamental principles of criminal law which fulfil the function of setting limits to the power of States under the rule of law.



Program: Part 2



(Lessons 5-6) The theory of penalties will be focused on in the second part of the program with the aim of gaining conceptual clarity. We will analyse penalties and their justification theories. Students should be able to manage the compulsory rules of the Criminal Code of Spain (1995) for the application of penalties. Practical lectures will be partly given over to doing exercises in order to calculate the exact penalties in certain sample cases. Nevertheless, among all the penalties, imprisonment will be considered in depth due to its significance and importance as a central penalty in both the Spanish and European systems. We will analyse the history of imprisonment, the different penitentiary models and the alternatives to avoid such a penalty.



(Lesson 7-8) Leaving aside penalties for adults, there are other kinds of consequences linked with the criminal act. Some of those consequences refer to special situations such as the case of security measures, measures for minors, corporate liability or complementary consequences, where the quality of the actor of the offence determines a special punitive reaction. Other consequences have a non-penal nature, such as civil responsibility or costs of procedure. Finally, we will deal with the closure of the criminal procedure, paying particular attention to the Statutes of limitation and cancelation of criminal records.

PROGRAM: CONTENTS



PART ONE : LESSONS 1-5



LESSON 1 - CONCEPT OF CRIMINAL LAW

1.1. Criminal law: initial approach. What is a crime?

-Definition of crime

-Criminal offense versus civil wrong

1.2. The contours of criminal liability.

-Range of criminal offenses

-Scope of criminal liability

-Inchoate crimes

-Participation: secondary liability

-Conditions of criminal liability

1.3. Outline of the aims and functions of the Criminal Law.

1.4. Criminal Law in Spain.

-Security measures.

-Corporate criminal liability in Spain

-Codification and special laws

-Criminal law and its sciences



LESSON 2 - CRIMINAL LAW: JURISDICTION



2.1. General matters.

2.2. The temporal dimension in committing a crime.

2.3. State jurisdiction: the territorial principle.

2.4. Exceptional principles: the nationality principle, the protective or security principle, the universality principle and the passive personality principle.

2.5. Extradition, immunity, asylum.



LESSON 3 - INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW



3.1. The notion of International Criminal Law.

3.2. General features of International Criminal Law.

3.3. The notion of international crimes.

3.4. Sources of International Criminal Law.

3.5. The historical evolution of international crimes.

3.6. The establishment of international criminal tribunals.

3.7. Substantive international criminal law: war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.



LESSON 4 – CRIMINALISATION AND PRINCIPLES OF THE CRIMINAL LAW.



4.1. The principle of individual autonomy.

4.2. The principle of welfare.

4.3. The harm principle and public wrong (principle of legally protected interests).

4.4. The minimalist approach (utility and criminal law as a last resort: ultima ratio).

4.5. Morally wrong behaviour.

4.6. Remote harms.

4.7. The rule of law and fair procedures: principle of legality.

4.8. Principles relating to the conditions of liability: principle of culpability and proportionality.

4.9. Sentencing: principle of humanity of the penalties and principle of rehabilitation or reintegration into society (reference to Lesson 5).



LESSON 5 – FUNDAMENTALS OF SENTENCING



5.1. Historical evolution of the system of penalties: principle of humanity of the penalties and principle of rehabilitation or reintegration into society.

5.2. Theories of Punishment: the aims of punishment.

5.3. The Death penalty.

5.4. Prison.

5.4.1. The history of European prison law and policy.

5.4.2. Spanish prison law: the essentials.

5.4.3. The present and future of European prison law and policy.



PART TWO : LESSONS 6-8



LESSON 6 SENTENCING IN SPAIN. PENALTIES



6.1. Common law and the Spanish Criminal Code: introduction.

6.1.1. Theory of crime: a brief introduction

6.1.2. System of penalties: first approach

6.2. Determination of penalties in the Spanish Criminal Code: basic (ordinary) rules (art. 61-72 Criminal Code 1995).

6.3. Determination of penalties in the Spanish Criminal Code: special rules (art. 73-79 Criminal Code 1995).

6.4. Imprisonment.

6.4.1. Penalties involving limitation of liberty in Spain.

6.4.2. Alternatives to imprisonment and how to avoid it: suspension and substitution.

6.4.3. The current penitentiary model in Spain.

6.5. Other kinds of penalties

6.5.1. Penalties which affects certain (other) rights (not liberty): withdrawal of honours, profession, driving license, gun license; prohibition of residence, restraining orders and so forth, with special mention to Community Services.

6.5.2. Fines.

6.5.3. Complementary penalties.



LESSON 7 SENTENCING. OTHER CRIMINAL CONSEQUENCES



7.1. Security measures.

7.2. Measures for minors.

7.3. Corporate liability.

7.4. Complementary consequences.



LESSON 8 SENTENCING. CIVIL RESPONSIBILITY, COSTS OF PROCEDURE, STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS AND CANCELATION OF CRIMINAL RECORDS.



8.1. Civil responsibility and costs of procedure.

8.2. Statutes of limitation.

8.3. Cancelation of criminal records.

KINDS OF TEACHING



Students must attend lectures and practical sessions and they will do complementary work in order to prepare them. Both practical and seminar sessions will imply fundamental reading and writing, and/or oral presentations.



METHODOLOGY



In order to improve our knowledge and abilities in the field, we will combine theoretical lectures with practical sessions. Lectures will be run not in a vertical manner but will instead be a permanent dialogue between lecturer and students. The practical sessions will consist of two different dynamics: on the one hand, practical exercises based on real judicial material will be necessary to learn the mechanics for applying the rules of penalty enforcement. On the other hand, students will have to read – on their own or in groups- some fundamental books or articles that will be later discussed and presented in class.



The main tools during the academic year will be a bibliography, case law and the Criminal Code of Spain.



From a methodological point of view, for the first block of the program (Lessons 1,2,3,4 and 5) lecturing will be the main tool, while for the second one (6,7 and 8) a more practical approach will be applied.

• Continuous Assessment System
• Final Assessment System
• Tools and qualification percentages:
  • Realization of Practical Work (exercises, cases or problems) (%): 30
  • - Exams (in either oral or written form) (%): 70

There will be a final written exam to check theoretical contents and practical abilities linked with the subject.



However, following the philosophy of continuous assessment students who regularly attend lectures and practical sessions and efficiently fulfil certain requirements linked with both lectures and practical sessions, will not have to pass any final exam.



For that purpose these are in detail the tasks that students will have to carry out and the assessment criteria there will be attached to them:



REQUIREMENTS/TASKS: TOTAL SCORE 10 POINTS

•Compulsory attendance of every lecture and practical sessions: up to 1 point might be removed from the final mark if attendance was unsatisfactory.



•Readings of fundamental texts (6 pieces of work) for preparation of lectures with oral and/or written presentation: up to 1 point.



•Resolution of cases (practical sessions) with oral and/or written presentation: 1 point.



•Three written exams: 8 points

o (First) Theoretical exam of lessons 1, 2 and 3: 4 points (middle term).

o (Second) Theoretical exam of Lessons 4 and 5 and practical exam (at the last week

of the term): 2 points.

o Practical exam (at the last week of the term): 2 points.

At this level only fundamental questions will be check as well as a minimum expertise in the resolution of practical cases.

The main tools during the academic year will be bibliography, case law and the Criminal Code of Spain.

Basic bibliography

• BACHMAIER, Lorena/DEL MORAL GARCIA, Antonio, Criminal Law in Spain, Austin/Boston/Chicago/New York/The Netherlands, 3rd ed., 2020.



• GORRIZ ROYO, Elena M., Introduction to Substantive Criminal Law, Tirant lo blanch, Valencia, 2019.



• HERRING, Jonathan, Criminal Law: text, cases and materials, tenth edition, Oxford, 2024.



• HORDER, Jeremy, Asworth´s Principles of Criminal Law, tenth edition, Oxford, 2022.



. MIR PUIG, Santiago, Fundamentos de Derecho penal y teoría del delito, Reppertor, Barcelona, 2020.



• MUÑOZ CONDE, Francisco/GARCIA ARAN, Mercedes, Derecho Penal. Parte General, undécima edición, Valencia, 2022.



• PRIETO DEL PINO, Ana María, Lessons of Spanish Substantive Criminal Law. General Part I, Thomson, 2017.

In-depth bibliography

• ASHWORTH, Andrew/HORDER, Jeremy, Principles of Criminal Law, seventh edition, Oxford, 2013.

• ASHWORTH, Andrew, Sentencing and Criminal Justice, sixth edition, Cambridge, 2015.

• CASSESE, Antonio, International Criminal Law, second edition, Oxford, 2008.

• CASSESE, Antonio/ACQUAVIVA, Guido G./FAN, Mary/WHITING, Alex A., International Criminal Law: Cases and Commentary, Oxford, 2010.

• CLOUGH, Joanne/JACKSON, Adam/WORTLEY, Natalie, Nutshells. Criminal Law, Sweet & Maxwell, 10th ed., London, 2014.

• FLETCHER, George P., Rethinking Criminal Law, Oxford, 2000..

• MIR PUIG, Santiago, Derecho Penal. Parte General, Reppertor, decima edición, Barcelona, 2015.

• MAPELLI CAFFARENA, Borja, Consecuencias Jurídicas del Delito, quinta edición, Madrid, 2011.

• MUÑOZ CONDE, Francisco/HASSEMER, Winfried, Introducción a la Criminología y a la Política Criminal, Valencia, 2012.

• PRIETO DEL PINO, Ana María (dir.), Lessons of Spanish Substantive Criminal Law. General Part II, Thomson, 2020.

• POLLOCK, Joycelyn M., Crime and Criminal Justice in America, Routledge, 3rd edition, 2017.

• VAN ZYL SMIT, Dirk/SNACKEN, Sonja, Principles of European Prison Law and Policy. Penology and Human Rights, Oxford, 2009/2011.

• WERLE, Gerhard, Principles of International Criminal Law, second edition, 2009.

Journals