home > events > binational_forum_on_alternative_criminal_justice.php

Search our website

"BINATIONAL FORUM ON ALTERNATIVE CRIMINAL JUSTICE"

FORO PÚBLICO / PUBLIC FORUM

The Justice in Mexico Project, in coordination with the College of Law of the Autonomous University of Baja California, announces an upcoming public forum Wednesday, May 9, 2007, to discuss alternative dispute resolution and alternative sentencing mechanisms in Mexico. The forum will bring together renowned legal practitioners and academics from Mexico and the United States to discuss the latest advances in systems that aim to make the criminal justice system more equitable and efficient. In particular speakers will discuss best practices for the abatement of high levels of pretrial and preventive detention, which are considered inefficient drains on limited human, capital, and infrastructure resources. Speakers will also discuss how new pretrial procedures, such as summary proceedings, plea bargaining, and settlement, can help reduce the costly case backlog. On the post-trial side, panelists will discuss new alternative sentencing measures that aim to better match the punishment with the crime, while keeping first-time non-violent offenders out of the penal system. Among scheduled presenters are keynote speaker Dr. Antonio Berchelmann Arizpe, criminal law professor, Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila; Dr. James Smith , law professor, University of California, Davis; Dr. Francisco Gorjón Gómez, law professor, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León; and, Mag. Lic. Ignacio Pérez Castañeda, justice, state supreme court of Baja California.

The public forum will also coincide with a special keynote lecture by Dr. Claudio Pavlic, former interim public defender of Chile, who will discuss the development and history of legal ethics in that country as part of the Project's Tinker Foundation-sponsored "Legal Ethics in Comparative Perspective" seminar series. Dr. Pavlic's keynote talk is expected to take place on May 9.