Raúl Zaffaroni

Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni (born in Buenos Aires, 1940) is an Argentine lawyer, PhD in Law and Social Sciences (Universidad Nacional del Litoral, 1964), and member of the Supreme Court of Justice of Argentina from 2003.

Zaffaroni is Professor and Head of the Department of Criminal Law, Universidad de Buenos Aires, and Vicepresident of the Scientific Committee, International Association of Penal Law. He is the President of the Advisory Committee of "the Instituto de Políticas Públicas" (Public Policies Institute) ( [http://ipoliticaspublicas.org/ IPP] ). He was awarded with OEA and Max Planck Stiftung fellowships.

He was a Judge during two decades, having retired as a member of the Federal Penal Court of Buenos Aires City. Then he was the General Director at the Instituto Latinoamericano de Prevención del Delito, a specialized organism of the UN. He was part of the ad hoc assembly that drew the 1994 reform of the Argentine Constitution, representing FrePaSo, member of the Buenos Aires Chamber of Representatives in 1997, and Director, National Institute Against Discrimination ( [http://www.mininterior.gov.ar/inadi/ INADI] ) during 2000-2001.

Zaffaroni was Professor in several Universities of Latin America and he is Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universidade do Estado de Río de Janeiro, (Italia), Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia, Università degli Studi di Macerata, Macerata, Italia Universidad Nacional San Andrés de Arequipa, Arequipa, Perú, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina, Universidad para la Cooperación Internacional, San José, Costa Rica, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Penales, México, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, España. He is member of many academic organizations and specialized periodical publications.

Eugenio Zaffaroni was the author of projects for Penal Law in Argentina (1991), Ecuador (1992) and Costa Rica (1991). He wrote 25 books, including "Manual de Derecho Penal", "Tratado de Derecho Penal" in five volumes, "En busca de las penas perdidas" and "Estructuras judiciales". He wrote a number of papers in national and international periodical publications, and legislation projects. He is considered as a “guaranties defender". Zaffaroni is a main reference for the liberal penal lawyers. His work "Derecho Penal: Parte General", with the co-authorship of Alejandro Slokar and Alejandro Alagia, reached the peak of sells and reading in Latin American Universities in a very short time.

As a man of the law, Zaffaroni has been repeatedly called a "garantista", that is, a supporter of the individual guarantees granted by the Constitution of Argentina as first principles.

External links

* [http://www.homenajeazaffaroni.com.ar Homenaje al jurista Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni - de www.iuspenalismo.com.ar]
* [http://cuestionpenal.blogspot.com/2007/10/entrevista-zaffaroni.html Vídeo entrevista a Raúl Zaffaroni, de www.cienciaspenales.net, Toledo, España, 2007.]