The always unfinished criminal procedure reform: an analysis of the Córdoba case from the perspective of judicial actors

Abstract

This article presents a sociological analysis of the criminal procedure reforms in the Province of Córdoba, aimed at the construction of an adversarial system. Through a qualitative approach, it addresses the perceptions that judicial actors have about these reforms, emphasizing the need to analyze these discourses as a starting point to account for the bureaucratic resistance to these reforms and the always singular ways in which they are implemented.

First, the processes of criminal procedure reforms in Latin America are briefly characterized. Then, the bureaucratic resistances of judicial actors are problematized through a series of analytical categories (traditions, dispositions and agency). Finally, we analyze the criminal procedure reforms in Córdoba and the perceptions that judicial operators have of some salient aspects of these reforms. Here, the unfinished nature of these reforms is explored and aspects of an efficiency-based reform program such as celerity and abbreviated trials are put in dialogue with others of a more guarantee-oriented nature.