La reacción penal del Estado frente al terrorismo transnacional = Criminal law and the State’s reaction to international terrorism

Abstract

The main assumption of this paper is that the contemporary transformation of the State and its role in the Western world has generated a significant reaction in the area of criminal law and this has led to a substantial reformulation of theories of punishment to explain the emergence of new crimes and criminal types. The paper is articulated as follows: First, I analyze the relationship between public security, the State and penalty in the modern World to show how the contemporary crisis of State sovereignty expresses the need for a new theoretical framework to explain the relationship between these terms (I). Second, I introduce the model developed by Niklas Luhmann to clarify the role of law in complex societies and the specific criminal developments from a functionalist approach proposed by Günther Jakobs (II). Third, I discuss the treatment of transnational terrorism as a phenomenon that allows to evaluate both the limits and the presuppositions of criminal law in democratic states (III). I conclude by offering some tentative answers to the question of the limits and the presuppositions of the State’s reaction in the case of criminal law (IV)

Keywords

• filosofia do direito
• direito penal