ENEMY CRIMINAL LAW, FRIEND CRIMINAL LAW, CRIMINAL LAW ENEMY AND CRIMINAL LAW FRIEND

Abstract

Ideally, a civilized Criminal Law should be conceived as a Criminal Law of liberty, meeting its function as an instrument of freedom, as well as a means of propulsion for the fulfillment of the individual primary duties of solidarity. However, this ideal of Criminal Law, which has always been desired and yet never completely achievable, does not find timely effectiveness in the historical reality, for it is strictly conditioned by the social, economical and cultural components of the different kinds of society. Criminal Law has often taken on the role of a "Criminal Law of the Enemy" and of a "Criminal Law of the Friend", among which even a culture of "enemy of the Criminal Law" has unfolded. The phrase "friend of the Criminal Law" constitutes an attempt not to be silent upon facing some of the generally preventive benevolences of the criminal law. Ultimately, the real problem of the Criminal Law, present and future, appears to be not so much in its reduction or expansion.