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Alberto M Binder — Transcript

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  1. 0:04Well, good afternoon. As is fitting and
  2. 0:08pleasant, I would first like to express
  3. 0:11my gratitude for your hospitality, the
  4. 0:13beautiful hospitality that one enjoys
  5. 0:16so much. And secondly, in this era of
  6. 0:24so many false individualistic illusions
  7. 0:26, we must always highlight and thank
  8. 0:29the builders of community. So, a thank
  9. 0:34you to our friend Abel Zamorano and his
  10. 0:37entire team for having painstakingly
  11. 0:40built this common space that we all
  12. 0:43enjoy and that makes us better. As
  13. 0:50other speakers have said, I will have
  14. 0:53half an hour to provide a reading guide
  15. 0:56for what you have in the immense book
  16. 0:58you have received. So, please take it
  17. 1:02in that way. And I have used this
  18. 1:06simple framework used in institutional
  19. 1:09analysis: where do we come from, where
  20. 1:11are we, where are we going, because it
  21. 1:14allows us to have a more complex vision
  22. 1:17, to get away from self-praising
  23. 1:19optimism and, at the same time, from a
  24. 1:22pessimism that leads nowhere in order
  25. 1:24to understand the processes we are in
  26. 1:27regarding this issue. I will be
  27. 1:31schematic. I will try to convey
  28. 1:33concrete and clear ideas to you as a
  29. 1:37guide for understanding this problem.
  30. 1:41First of all, we must reflect and not
  31. 1:45forget not only the importance of what
  32. 1:49we have called the reform of criminal
  33. 1:53justice in Latin America, but its
  34. 1:56magnitude in just 20 years. Nearly 40
  35. 2:01new procedural codes have been approved
  36. 2:04. And this meant finally fulfilling in
  37. 2:10our countries what had been a mandate
  38. 2:13of the liberal republican thought of
  39. 2:16the first decades of the 19th century
  40. 2:19that had taken us so long. We went
  41. 2:22through written processes, we went
  42. 2:25through mixed ones, we did everything
  43. 2:27until we reached these 20 years. Where
  44. 2:31look at this enormous work that took
  45. 2:34place. This is the first thing we must
  46. 2:38keep in our memory because sometimes we
  47. 2:41get lost or we do not reflect
  48. 2:43adequately on the magnitude of what all
  49. 2:46our countries and the entire region
  50. 2:49have decided. From there, in this "
  51. 2:54where we come from," I want to
  52. 2:56highlight only three ideas. You will be
  53. 2:59able to see many others. First of all,
  54. 3:02when the decision is made to advance
  55. 3:05the reform process, it is not for a
  56. 3:08technical reason or because of
  57. 3:10procedural schools. Hmm. That is not
  58. 3:14the reason. The reason is much deeper
  59. 3:17and continues to this day. In some way,
  60. 3:21some coming out of darker times, others
  61. 3:24not, but all of Latin America begins a
  62. 3:27new period of installation and thinking
  63. 3:30about democracy. And there appears a
  64. 3:35new idea, relatively, no, I would say
  65. 3:37it is new, in the consideration of the
  66. 3:40democratic thought that we have to
  67. 3:42maintain. It is not possible to build a
  68. 3:46quality democracy without a quality
  69. 3:48justice administration. But I repeat,
  70. 3:52it is not possible to build a quality
  71. 3:55democracy without a quality justice
  72. 3:58administration, but not in the sense
  73. 4:01that we will have a quality democracy
  74. 4:04and by derivation we will get a quality
  75. 4:07justice administration. No, no, but
  76. 4:12rather the incorporation of what from
  77. 4:15then on was called the judicial
  78. 4:17question of democracy; we know that the
  79. 4:20dimension of judicial systems, and
  80. 4:23historically since Beccaria onwards,
  81. 4:25criminal justice has been a central
  82. 4:28political concern. That is to say,
  83. 4:32working on that administration of
  84. 4:35justice to make it high-quality is a
  85. 4:37central and important part of building
  86. 4:39that quality democracy. We come from
  87. 4:43there, and you might tell me, "We
  88. 4:45haven't achieved it." No, but why
  89. 4:47should we have achieved it in 20 years?
  90. 4:52I say this because yesterday I was
  91. 4:54listening to the candidates for
  92. 4:56different offices, I think they were
  93. 4:58for president, and they kept demanding
  94. 5:00a quality democracy. It remains the
  95. 5:04issue, and therefore we will not be
  96. 5:06able to build that quality democracy we
  97. 5:08all long for if we do not take the
  98. 5:10administration of justice seriously and
  99. 5:12ensure it is quality-driven. That is
  100. 5:15where we come from, from that
  101. 5:16reflection, from that clear idea.
  102. 5:20Everything else was how to technically
  103. 5:22build ideas and tools to solve that
  104. 5:24problem. Second, an idea that I want us
  105. 5:31to be clear about regarding where we
  106. 5:36come from. When that political need was
  107. 5:41raised, luckily for Latin America,
  108. 5:44there were tools available; but those
  109. 5:48available tools were the result of at
  110. 5:52least 30 previous years of networks of
  111. 5:55proceduralists and academics who had
  112. 5:59been working intensely to define what
  113. 6:02those procedural rules would be. The
  114. 6:07so-called model codes for Ibero-America
  115. 6:10, both in criminal and procedural
  116. 6:12matters, began to take shape in the 60s
  117. 6:15, and there was a cooperation network
  118. 6:21throughout Latin America that got in
  119. 6:24touch and worked together as if we all
  120. 6:27belonged to the same sect, and that
  121. 6:30also allowed for the scale of the
  122. 6:33problem. Let's remember that because I
  123. 6:37will bring it back at the end. Third,
  124. 6:41where do we come from? If this great
  125. 6:45political problem had been left in the
  126. 6:48hands of judicial operators or even
  127. 6:52academics, the reform could not have
  128. 6:55been carried out. The reform process is
  129. 7:00characterized by a deep articulation
  130. 7:02with social movements, organizations,
  131. 7:04and human rights movements that were
  132. 7:06working for that better quality
  133. 7:08democracy through social coordination.
  134. 7:12It was a moment of openness to society.
  135. 7:14There was no fear of opening up to
  136. 7:18society in order to build that highly
  137. 7:21complex process of change. I want to
  138. 7:25highlight this; we could talk, and you
  139. 7:27will see in the essay I left you many
  140. 7:28other reasons regarding where we come
  141. 7:30from, the historical background,
  142. 7:31cultural problems, and so on. But I
  143. 7:35wanted to highlight these three because
  144. 7:38they relate to what we will later see
  145. 7:40as the need for a new agenda for
  146. 7:43criminal justice reform. Alright, there
  147. 7:47we are. Second point: from where we
  148. 7:53came to where we are now, which also
  149. 7:56involves a much longer task to explain,
  150. 7:59but I want to highlight two or three
  151. 8:02phenomena, let's do it in threes again.
  152. 8:09The first one, which should in a way
  153. 8:11make us more satisfied, is that
  154. 8:13throughout the region, the idea, the
  155. 8:16concept, and I would even say a certain
  156. 8:19cultural consolidation regarding what
  157. 8:21the adversarial system is, has been
  158. 8:24solidified. I don’t know anyone who
  159. 8:27is asking to go back to the mixed
  160. 8:29system, to the written system. There is
  161. 8:31no one in Latin America, right? Why?
  162. 8:34Because it was understood that this was
  163. 8:36a derivation. of international human
  164. 8:39rights treaties, a derivation of the
  165. 8:42constitutional model of criminal
  166. 8:44procedure, and this became consolidated
  167. 8:46. As my mentor Julio Mayer used to tell
  168. 8:51us, whom it is good to remember since
  169. 8:54he passed away recently. Look, it will
  170. 8:57take us a long time to implement, but
  171. 8:59this is the path we have, we have
  172. 9:00nothing else to put in its place. We
  173. 9:03have to build this well, but this is
  174. 9:05the constitutional model; it’s not
  175. 9:06just about the codes or the laws, it is
  176. 9:08in the Constitution and the treaties.
  177. 9:11And today, even all the students are
  178. 9:13clear on this. This is no small thing,
  179. 9:16let’s say; this is something to be
  180. 9:18glad about, it is consolidated. And
  181. 9:20someone might tell me, it is also
  182. 9:22consolidated at a cultural level. Of
  183. 9:24course, because society—and the media
  184. 9:26helps us with this—always believed
  185. 9:28justice was more or less like this, and
  186. 9:30now they discover it doesn't turn out
  187. 9:32very well, but it is more or less how
  188. 9:34it was in the cultural imagination. So,
  189. 9:36this conceptual, political, and
  190. 9:39cultural consolidation is an important
  191. 9:42part of where we are. However, this
  192. 9:48coexists with another problem: when we
  193. 9:51no longer look at the conceptual model,
  194. 9:54but rather at criminal justice as a
  195. 9:56universe of practices, as the set of
  196. 9:59things we effectively do, things look
  197. 10:01different. So, today we have a strong
  198. 10:06tension between the adversarial model
  199. 10:10and the set of practices that are being
  200. 10:14developed, which are not uniform either
  201. 10:18, but let’s put it more caricaturedly
  202. 10:21. The adversarial system that judicial
  203. 10:26operators have in their heads is not
  204. 10:28exactly the one from the model. Hmm. Uh
  205. 10:33, which is quite a bit more established
  206. 10:36, and there, a process is triggered
  207. 10:39that we already know and study as the
  208. 10:42inquisitorial reconfiguration in the
  209. 10:45world of the practice of adversarial
  210. 10:48systems, which is also very complex.
  211. 10:53But in general terms, if one looks at
  212. 10:56how the system functions, judicial
  213. 10:59operators slowly push the operation,
  214. 11:02the actual configuration of the system,
  215. 11:05toward a type of operation typical of
  216. 11:08mixed systems; they just let it drift
  217. 11:11there. And what does that mean?
  218. 11:15Basically, a preparatory stage that is
  219. 11:17bureaucratized and bogged down in red
  220. 11:19tape, and low-quality oral proceedings.
  221. 11:24That is what happens if we leave the
  222. 11:27system to drift toward wherever the
  223. 11:30judicial operators take it. But this is
  224. 11:33not so clear because there are many
  225. 11:35people working to change course, to
  226. 11:39steer it. That is why we have a certain
  227. 11:43feeling of disorder throughout the
  228. 11:45region, because it is not clarified. I
  229. 11:50repeat, we had to ask ourselves now
  230. 11:52that we can relax a bit and are no
  231. 11:53longer in the battle against the
  232. 11:55inquisitorial system in the conceptual
  233. 11:57model, could it be any other way? I
  234. 12:03remember at the beginning of the reform
  235. 12:05, when we started working with Canadian
  236. 12:08or North American colleagues or
  237. 12:10prosecutors, they would tell us, "It is
  238. 12:12impossible to establish the adversarial
  239. 12:14system by changing the laws. It is
  240. 12:18impossible because our own experience
  241. 12:20is that it took us centuries." And we
  242. 12:25would tell them, "Yes, that may be, but
  243. 12:26it's not like our written systems." You
  244. 12:29in Panama had it more or less
  245. 12:31prefigured, you had more opportunities,
  246. 12:33but in most countries, the written or
  247. 12:35French mixed systems were not going to
  248. 12:38evolve on their own toward an
  249. 12:40adversarial system. What we were saying
  250. 12:43was, we have to make a legislative
  251. 12:46strike and then start to evolve. And
  252. 12:49that strategy was—was right. It was
  253. 12:53right, but there we are. So, let us not
  254. 12:56be surprised that we now have all the
  255. 12:58problems of a system that has to evolve
  256. 13:01. Or do you think that the Anglo-Saxon
  257. 13:05or North American systems didn't have
  258. 13:07many of the problems we have 50 years
  259. 13:09ago, and that they aren't constantly
  260. 13:11correcting them? That brings me to the
  261. 13:14third element that I want to highlight
  262. 13:17about where we are, which has to do
  263. 13:20with the fact that we have lost the
  264. 13:23tension of the system's implementation.
  265. 13:29Who is worrying about the
  266. 13:30implementation of the system? I mean,
  267. 13:33once they started—once they went into
  268. 13:36effect in 2016, it's as if you let go,
  269. 13:42The leadership from Ministries of
  270. 13:44Justice or the implementation
  271. 13:46commissions in the various places that
  272. 13:49had been set up stop functioning, and a
  273. 13:52system of mutual adjustment is supposed
  274. 13:55to begin; but that implies a new type
  275. 13:57of leadership and a new type of
  276. 13:59technique. A technique for adjusting
  277. 14:03the system that we have not developed
  278. 14:05and that does not materialize in a
  279. 14:06clear way; in other words, the tension
  280. 14:08is no longer there. And notice that
  281. 14:12this is a problem, because if we have
  282. 14:15spoken of the magnitude, of the
  283. 14:17political importance, of what it
  284. 14:19signifies, and of something that is
  285. 14:22also an achievement we must highlight,
  286. 14:25it is the great fear that existed at
  287. 14:27the start of the reform: that we could
  288. 14:30change the codes, that could be done,
  289. 14:33but it would remain floating in the sky
  290. 14:35of the normative. That did not happen.
  291. 14:40The criminal justice reform touched
  292. 14:43down. And today we have—consider the
  293. 14:48magnitude of this—more or less 70
  294. 14:50procedural systems that are functioning
  295. 14:53in a different way. Tens of thousands
  296. 14:58of prosecutors have been appointed in
  297. 15:00Latin America, thousands of judges,
  298. 15:03tens of thousands of public defenders,
  299. 15:05because in most countries there was no
  300. 15:08strengthened public defense. That is to
  301. 15:12say, the level of investment, the level
  302. 15:14of touching down that exists has been
  303. 15:17very notable. So, today it is strange
  304. 15:22that these techniques of continuing to
  305. 15:24implement have been lost, as if this
  306. 15:27could be implemented in just three or
  307. 15:29four years, and we have strong
  308. 15:32leadership problems in the mutual
  309. 15:34adjustment of the institutions. That is
  310. 15:38where we are. That is where we are. Hmm
  311. 15:40. So, this, what I am saying, is an
  312. 15:44optimistic view. In some things yes, in
  313. 15:49others no. It is not a pessimistic
  314. 15:51measure, no. Pessimistic would have
  315. 15:53been if the codes had just remained
  316. 15:56there, that we would be talking about
  317. 15:58things that are not applied, right? But
  318. 16:02it is realistic that we must have a
  319. 16:05reality check to realize that of such
  320. 16:07magnitude, just here in Panama, in how
  321. 16:10many years, the Public Ministry
  322. 16:12increased its number of officials
  323. 16:14twofold or threefold, I believe. Hmm.
  324. 16:18My country even more because we have
  325. 16:20many systems. So, that is something of
  326. 16:23very great magnitude. That is where we
  327. 16:29are setting the system in motion, with
  328. 16:32general clarity of the models and some
  329. 16:35problems, because the codes—these 40
  330. 16:38codes we have that materialize and
  331. 16:41provide details to the adversarial
  332. 16:44criminal procedural system—I always
  333. 16:47say: they are 40 versions of
  334. 16:49Frankenstein. And you find a leg that
  335. 16:54comes from the previous code. An arm
  336. 16:58that comes from someone's whim. We
  337. 17:01always find some congressman's ear who
  338. 17:03said, "Include that provision or I'm
  339. 17:05not voting." So, it's not that I can't
  340. 17:10guarantee it; there isn't a code in any
  341. 17:13country that doesn't say, "How pristine
  342. 17:16," they all have twists and turns. But
  343. 17:19I am also convinced of something, and
  344. 17:20you can tell me if that's the case. I
  345. 17:22don't know of any procedural code in
  346. 17:24any Latin American country that
  347. 17:26prevents the implementation of the
  348. 17:27accusatorial system. Or that prevents
  349. 17:31the implementation of the accusatorial
  350. 17:32system. That is not the case. So, well,
  351. 17:36until Franin learns to dance salsa,
  352. 17:38let's give him time. It's going to take
  353. 17:42time. In the meantime, we should work
  354. 17:45more on smoothing out all the rough
  355. 17:47edges and mismatches in the codes,
  356. 17:50which aren't really errors. They are
  357. 17:54the product of different interests,
  358. 17:56different occurrences in the
  359. 17:58development state of each country, and
  360. 18:01their traditions. That realism of the
  361. 18:05imperfection of procedural codes
  362. 18:07allowed them to be approved, not just
  363. 18:10generic conceptual ideas. Right, where
  364. 18:14are we heading? Because we have little
  365. 18:16time. And here I want to propose only
  366. 18:21four or five central challenges that I
  367. 18:24think are part of this new agenda we
  368. 18:28need to undertake for reform. First of
  369. 18:31all, if we no longer have to be
  370. 18:33discussing the general ideas of the
  371. 18:36accusatorial system, everything has
  372. 18:38exploded into a thousand different
  373. 18:40problems. And here we also have a
  374. 18:44problem, which is that we can get
  375. 18:47distracted by the details and not
  376. 18:50realize how we need to keep pushing the
  377. 18:53system toward that. And on the other
  378. 18:59hand, we do have a challenge: we have
  379. 19:01very little empirical knowledge of what
  380. 19:04is happening in our systems. A lot—we
  381. 19:10don't have our information systems,
  382. 19:13which exist in some countries and
  383. 19:15sometimes exist with many resources,
  384. 19:17giving us a clear idea of what is
  385. 19:20really happening; numbers are no longer
  386. 19:22enough. This universe of practices has
  387. 19:25become so complex that the gut feeling
  388. 19:28of an old prosecutor, judge, or someone
  389. 19:31isn't enough. We have to put numbers on
  390. 19:33the table. Hmm. In my country, for
  391. 19:38example, we just did an investigation
  392. 19:40that made us fight with three-quarters
  393. 19:42of our public ministries, where we were
  394. 19:44able to demonstrate that when we look
  395. 19:46for high-quality outcomes from the
  396. 19:48Public Prosecutor's Office, they don't
  397. 19:50reach 7%. In other words, 90%of the
  398. 19:55cases lead to nothing. So, this must be
  399. 19:59put on the table; otherwise, it's easy
  400. 20:01to say the media is pushing us, but
  401. 20:03then one says no. Well then, first
  402. 20:07challenge: to build a new agenda, a new
  403. 20:10stage, we must develop empirical
  404. 20:13knowledge, both with data and a much
  405. 20:15finer analysis of jurisprudence, of how
  406. 20:18criminal justice problems are
  407. 20:21materializing, because otherwise, we
  408. 20:23often end up doing scholasticism; that
  409. 20:26is, having discussions where we don't
  410. 20:30know if they occur in reality or not.
  411. 20:36The institution currently facing the
  412. 20:39greatest challenges, fortunately, is
  413. 20:41the Public Prosecutor's Office. The
  414. 20:45Public Prosecutor's Office is an
  415. 20:46institution that is, fortunately, in
  416. 20:48trouble. Why is it in trouble? In the
  417. 20:53first place, because in recent years,
  418. 20:56much more than we sometimes expected,
  419. 20:58the region's prosecutors have shown
  420. 21:01they can take on powerful sectors. They
  421. 21:09have taken on business people, taken on
  422. 21:11politicians, they have taken on those
  423. 21:14who have power, and today we are
  424. 21:16feeling the backlash of that. Do you
  425. 21:19know how the Public Prosecutor's
  426. 21:21problem has become complicated? When
  427. 21:25the status quo and political leadership
  428. 21:27became aware, and especially when the
  429. 21:30mafias realized that there was a
  430. 21:31powerful institution there. Is this
  431. 21:37good news? Yes. Now, as we always say,
  432. 21:41if the Public Prosecutor's Office is
  433. 21:43going to move up to the big leagues, it
  434. 21:45has to adjust how it operates.
  435. 21:48Furthermore, it also has to face new,
  436. 21:51very complex forms of criminality,
  437. 21:54criminal markets, and on the other hand
  438. 21:56, very massive phenomena of
  439. 21:58victimization that are also new, first
  440. 22:01and foremost gender violence and others
  441. 22:04. So, the Public Prosecutor's Office is
  442. 22:07, fortunately, in trouble. Now a lot of
  443. 22:13work in political re-engineering and
  444. 22:15institutional re-engineering must be
  445. 22:17put into it. What do I mean by
  446. 22:21political re-engineering? Well, when
  447. 22:24the new Public Prosecutor's Office is
  448. 22:26discussed in Latin America, because the
  449. 22:28one that existed before did not have
  450. 22:29the magnitude of the one today, or in
  451. 22:31some countries, it barely existed at
  452. 22:33all. There was a discussion about
  453. 22:36whether it would be dependent on the
  454. 22:37executive branch or would be an
  455. 22:38autonomous institution. And the idea
  456. 22:43that prosecutor's offices are
  457. 22:46autonomous institutions ends up
  458. 22:48prevailing in Latin America; but only
  459. 22:51now are we becoming aware of what that
  460. 22:54means, because autonomy can be a
  461. 22:57situation of weakness (not talking to
  462. 23:00anyone) or autonomy can be a situation
  463. 23:03of strength, but at least beyond having
  464. 23:06a serious, rigorous, intelligent
  465. 23:08dialogue with others, including
  466. 23:11political actors. What I am sure I
  467. 23:15cannot renounce is leaning on social
  468. 23:18power for support. That is
  469. 23:21institutional autonomy. And when we
  470. 23:24tell prosecutors, "But look, if you now
  471. 23:26need to build power for autonomy to be
  472. 23:28true autonomy, with these numbers and
  473. 23:30this way of working, how are you going
  474. 23:32to build alliances with the citizenry?"
  475. 23:37Hm. So, this is something we must start
  476. 23:41working on in a new way to understand
  477. 23:46this autonomy. The Public Prosecutor's
  478. 23:49Office must also face a deep
  479. 23:51reengineering of its work processes and
  480. 23:54, consequently, its organizational
  481. 23:57models. Much has been done, yes, but it
  482. 24:01must be deepened, because that Public
  483. 24:03Prosecutor's Office which receives tens
  484. 24:06or hundreds of thousands of cases—and
  485. 24:09generally speaking, let's assume, I
  486. 24:11don't know the numbers here, that they
  487. 24:14have 90%of cases archived. cannot
  488. 24:18present itself in a new way like that;
  489. 24:21it has to learn to build quality exits
  490. 24:23in a much more sophisticated manner,
  491. 24:25and for that, the matter is key. The
  492. 24:28key lies in abandoning the worst
  493. 24:31disease we have, the worst obstacle,
  494. 24:33which is the culture of paperwork. In
  495. 24:38other words, if what prosecutors are
  496. 24:40going to do is arrive at their offices,
  497. 24:42open case files, and process them, we
  498. 24:43are in trouble. The abandonment of what
  499. 24:48we call investigation by routine duties
  500. 24:50in favor of investigations by
  501. 24:52hypothesis, as we were told. Well, new
  502. 24:54forms of grouping with more flexibility
  503. 24:57by subject, while also carrying baggage
  504. 25:00that we still haven't been able to
  505. 25:02resolve and which it's time we pay full
  506. 25:05attention to, because this has been
  507. 25:07going on for 20 years without a
  508. 25:09solution: we have not been able to
  509. 25:12modernize and normalize the
  510. 25:13investigative police. The question of
  511. 25:19whether it belongs to the Public
  512. 25:21Prosecutor's Office or not is a
  513. 25:22secondary issue, but our investigative
  514. 25:24police are not keeping pace with the
  515. 25:26needs that prosecutor offices have
  516. 25:28today, and this must be addressed very
  517. 25:30deeply. So the new agenda is a new look
  518. 25:35at what the effectiveness of the Public
  519. 25:38Prosecutor's Office means, and a lot of
  520. 25:40work needs to be developed there. The
  521. 25:45Attorney General, uh, outlined these
  522. 25:47lines and you, uh, heard it above all
  523. 25:50in the opening speech. Second, the
  524. 25:53judges, we will not tire of, uh,
  525. 25:58pointing out the importance of judges,
  526. 26:01but judges have two important tasks.
  527. 26:06And let's remember something that is
  528. 26:08also a kind of problem we are dragging
  529. 26:10along: that the judicial reform was,
  530. 26:12above all, a first-instance reform. And
  531. 26:14that's not bad, but today we are paying
  532. 26:16for a lack of clarity in the higher
  533. 26:18courts, in particular the Supreme
  534. 26:20Courts. But judges, if there is
  535. 26:23anything we are asking of them, it is
  536. 26:26that they be conscious custodians of
  537. 26:28oral proceedings. Hm. And being
  538. 26:33custodians of orality, which remains a
  539. 26:36central theme, means being aware that
  540. 26:39when we speak of orality, we are
  541. 26:41talking about rigorous, public
  542. 26:43litigation. Orality is not just blah,
  543. 26:49blah, blah; it is rigorous, public
  544. 26:51litigation, and we are still far from
  545. 26:54that. We are seeing how the core, the
  546. 26:58touchstone of all this, which is the
  547. 27:01production of evidence, is relaxing;
  548. 27:04trials are being allowed to drag on,
  549. 27:06and trials are being conducted that
  550. 27:09lack rigor. The very idea that one must
  551. 27:12prove disputed facts, which we always
  552. 27:14say—that is in the records—is not a
  553. 27:16new idea. Uh, it is being abandoned,
  554. 27:19anything is being proven, and the
  555. 27:20opening order for trial is not being
  556. 27:22given enough attention. That is where
  557. 27:25we must ask judges to be clear
  558. 27:27custodians of orality as rigorous,
  559. 27:30public litigation. And we must be
  560. 27:33careful with temptations. No one is
  561. 27:35against virtuality, but we must be
  562. 27:38careful of the loss of publicity and
  563. 27:42the loss of rigor that certain forms of
  564. 27:45virtuality entail, keeping an open mind
  565. 27:49, but without getting carried away by
  566. 27:53irresponsible enthusiasm. And the
  567. 27:57second task we must ask of judges on
  568. 28:01this new agenda is more consistent work
  569. 28:05in the development of precedents. The
  570. 28:10function of justice, for all judges, is
  571. 28:14legal certainty; and that is a system
  572. 28:17of precedents where we are also
  573. 28:20rigorous in following and analyzing
  574. 28:23those precedents, which is something
  575. 28:26always linked to facts and law, and
  576. 28:29where both Anglo-Saxon and continental
  577. 28:32European systems now align. We have a
  578. 28:36strong challenge regarding the legal
  579. 28:38profession, but much has been said
  580. 28:39about that here, so I will leave it at
  581. 28:41that. But they have, in the law of
  582. 28:44advocacy, what I would say is, if there
  583. 28:47is an ethical problem, it is an ethical
  584. 28:49problem in a different sense: that we
  585. 28:52lawyers must all have a strong
  586. 28:54adherence to the rules of the system,
  587. 28:57to fair play, to a fair trial. It is
  588. 29:00not a problem of ethics or abstract
  589. 29:03values, but rather that the lawyer, the
  590. 29:05legal profession, means that we will
  591. 29:08accept the rules and not be pulling
  592. 29:10them in every direction. We know this.
  593. 29:14Any soccer player...fair play would be
  594. 29:16impossible if there were no adherence
  595. 29:17to the rules by the players, which
  596. 29:19sometimes fails, and well, it fails and
  597. 29:21for that we have referees; but, in
  598. 29:23general terms, the culture of fair play
  599. 29:25, which used to be called procedural
  600. 29:27good faith and should continue to be
  601. 29:28called that, is the axis of
  602. 29:30professional ethics. And judges must
  603. 29:32also demand this of lawyers with
  604. 29:34greater strictness. Every time fair
  605. 29:38play is affected—I only have two
  606. 29:40minutes left and I'm finishing. Every
  607. 29:43time the game is affected, the fair
  608. 29:45trial, when there is no adherence to
  609. 29:47the rules, we must be rigorous because
  610. 29:49there is an ethical impact there. The
  611. 29:53system provides enough tools for any
  612. 29:56lawyer to manage their interests well.
  613. 29:59They do not need to break the rules. Hm
  614. 30:02. And this seems to me to be something
  615. 30:05that today we must be clearer about
  616. 30:07with the students who are there,
  617. 30:09telling them, "Gentlemen, here is a
  618. 30:11system of rules to be respected." And
  619. 30:14I'll finish now with the academy. The
  620. 30:17academy, and since we are here in an
  621. 30:19academic setting, must also take on
  622. 30:21challenges. I believe it is time for
  623. 30:25this new agenda, which we have to build
  624. 30:27for the next 10 or 15 years, to once
  625. 30:29again have the participation of this
  626. 30:31network of institutes to which we all
  627. 30:34belong and which played such an
  628. 30:35important role. And we have to get to
  629. 30:40work on, uh, developing and giving
  630. 30:43technical capacity to public
  631. 30:45authorities to take the criminal
  632. 30:50justice system to a new stage. That is
  633. 30:54a role we must have there. It is the
  634. 30:55most beautiful role we can have as
  635. 30:57proceduralists, as, uh, penalists:
  636. 30:59thinking about the development of the
  637. 31:02system, not entertaining ourselves with
  638. 31:04the scholasticism that allows us to
  639. 31:06build castles in the air. Let's make a
  640. 31:09realistic agenda and let's make a
  641. 31:11realistic theory about the problems of
  642. 31:13our systems. And finally, we have the
  643. 31:17great pending task of making legal
  644. 31:20education clearer. For that, we have a
  645. 31:24theoretical challenge, I insist, and
  646. 31:26you will see it written there: the
  647. 31:27abandonment of the theoretical corpus
  648. 31:29of the mixed system, which is so
  649. 31:31powerful that we still believe we can
  650. 31:33explain accusatory systems with the old
  651. 31:35ideas of the mixed system, and it
  652. 31:37cannot be done. For the younger ones,
  653. 31:41this is a fantastic time because we
  654. 31:42have to make all of this explode into
  655. 31:44new ideas, into new research; you have
  656. 31:46to write. Put all of us who write in
  657. 31:51parentheses, so get enthusiastic
  658. 31:54because there is a lot to develop and,
  659. 31:57above all, to recover something so
  660. 31:59beautiful that we all keep in our
  661. 32:02memory, which is the collaborative
  662. 32:04effort that all these spaces allowed,
  663. 32:07that, uh, each one would be nourished
  664. 32:10and, above all, uh, it pushed us toward
  665. 32:13the most satisfying thing: thinking,
  666. 32:15speaking, saying, studying, knowing
  667. 32:19that we are clearly doing a good thing
  668. 32:22for our countries. So, go ahead. That
  669. 32:25is the Academy in Motion. Thank you
  670. 32:27very much. Ah.

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