Los menores de edad en conflicto con la ley y el problema de los criterios de eficacia de la defensa jurídica

un nudo gordiano

Abstract

At least from the beginning of modernity up to nowadays, the relationship between minors and law (understood as certainty and previsibility), has been tortuous. History is stubborn demonstrating that the worse atrocitrocities against infancy (as it once was against women) were actually committed in the name of pity and compassion, rather than in the name of repression itself. Up to recent times (for example, in Bolivia up to 1992), some latinamerican legislations expressely prohibited lawyers' assistance in criminal cases that envolved minors. Behind that outrage, there was the belief in the benevolent and positive character of sanctions. In that context, there is no surprise in the fact that legal defense, particularly the public one, is the weakest link in the legal chain of the criminaljustice system for children and adolescents. Confusions towards the criterion of efficiency to measure the action of specialized legal defense constitude an irrefutable indicator of this dominant legal culture. This article analizes the historical origins and practical consecuences of this phenomenon.