The old and new horizons of criminal dogmatics

Abstract

The function of criminal doctrine is not to make science by formulating truth claims, but to conform to and focus on solving practical problems, judging human actions through the legal norms in force in accordance with a series of constitutional principles. Its mission is different from pretending to elaborate universal scientific laws and submitting them to experience and their verification or refutation. The central value of the legal theory of crime is contracted to the idea of justice, which has to be made effective through certain constitutional requirements of legal security, efficiency, utility and freedom.