Criminal Justice Reform, Americanization, and Conviction without Trial in Argentina

Abstract

This chapter addresses the hypothesis that the criminal justice reforms toward an accusatory/adversarial model produced in Latin America from the 1980s onwards have meant a mutation in its way of functioning that can be read as an “Americanization.” Specifically, this general question is addressed by analyzing the introduction, in these reform processes, of mechanisms of conviction without trial – in their majority inspired by the “plea bargaining” of the Anglo-American tradition – that have a significant impact on the way in which the power to punish is exercised in most of the countries of the region today. This discussion is elaborated from a case study on the Province of Santa Fe (Argentina). It is argued that in the “law in books” the introduction of this type of mechanism has frequently implied a “weak Americanization,” since it was a “legal translation” (Langer, 2006) that not only generated “adoptions” but also “innovations” with respect to the parameters of the Anglo-American tradition. But it also shows how this can be combined with a “strong Americanization” in the “law in action,” differentiating the dimension of the dynamics from the dimension of the effects, based on two key observations: the weakness and infrequency of judicial control of the agreements reached by the parties and the enormous preponderance of convictions without trial. In this way, it is intended to make the idea of “Americanization” of criminal justice more complex, differentiating levels (in books/in action) and dimensions (dynamics/results).

Citation

Sozzo, M. (2024), "Criminal Justice Reform, Americanization, and Conviction without Trial in Argentina", Dal Santo, L. and Sozzo, M. (Ed.) Punishment in Latin America: Explorations from the Margins (Perspectives on Crime, Law and Justice in the Global South), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 59-85. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83797-328-620241004