Abstract
The basic elements on which this contribution is based are: on the one hand, the recognition of the basic characteristics of soft law instruments and the appreciation of their denaturalization. On the other hand, the analysis of the expansive phenomenon of criminal law and its link with globalization and the risk society. Their joint analysis will allow me to determine the effective incidence of the soft law in the expansion of criminal law, in the light of what has happened in the case of self-laundering of capital which, together with the criminalization of the conducts of using and possessing (Art. 301 CC), and tax fraud being considered a prior offense (Art. 305 CC), generates important breaches in one of the most basic and elementary principles of Criminal Law of the Rule of Law, the non bis in idem principle.
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Notes
- 1.
Initially, the term soft law was used “to describe normative statements formulated as abstract principles that became operative through their judicial application.” See, in this sense, Mazuellos Bellido (2004), p. 2: Alarcón García (2010), p. 274.
Barberis has also enunciated, in my opinion with great accuracy, the different meanings that this term can have. In this sense, Barberis (1994), pp. 282–283.
- 2.
Garrido Gómez (2017), p. 4.
- 3.
Notwithstanding the above and considering not only their exceptional nature but also the fact that they are characterized by being atypical acts and instruments, we must emphasize that they are also present in Spanish public law through different forms and categories, such as circulars, instructions or service letters (Sarmiento 2006, p. 231).
- 4.
Mostacci (2008), p. 90.
- 5.
Feler (2015), p. 292.
- 6.
Del Toro Huerta (2006), p. 528.
- 7.
On the conceptual differences between hard law and soft law: Sánchez Cáceres (2019), p. 468.
- 8.
It deals specifically with: (1) Incorporation in hard law; (2) Incorporation by reference or resubmission; 3) Incorporation by endorsement of the legislator. For more information on the content of these techniques: Sarmiento (2006), p. 249.
- 9.
On the relationship between soft law and governance: Laporta San Miguel (2014), pp. 51–56 and 60.
- 10.
There is an intense debate about the understanding, or not, of soft law as a source of international law, the answer to which depends to some extent on the interpretation given to Art. 38 of the ICJ Statute. Thus, while for Alarcón García soft law under a strict interpretation cannot be considered a source of international law (Alarcón García (2010), p. 528), for Escudero Alday, through a moderate interpretation, it can be considered as such as long as it is introduced into the legal system through a hard law rule (Escudero Alday (2012), p. 109 et seq.). The third option would be a flexible interpretation by virtue of which soft law can be considered a source of international law, insofar as it is a consequence of the will of the states with respect to a specific global problem.
- 11.
Garrido Gómez (2017), p. 56.
In similar terms Escudero Alday also expresses himself, for whom soft law is “a formula of normative production that is placed next to the traditional forms of legal regulation and that at this initial moment can be characterized through the following notes: it responds to the scheme of advice or recommendation, proposes and does not impose the performance of behaviors” (Escudero Alday (2012), p. 128).
- 12.
- 13.
Mazuellos Bellido (2004), p. 2.
- 14.
Under Article 249 of the Treaty on European Union, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission have the power to issue non-binding recommendations and opinions, i.e., soft law.
- 15.
Ibánez is of this opinion when he says: “these are norms that lack one of the elements of the concept of legal norm, that is, the legal effect or consequence, which is also usually called ‘sanction’; what happens if the proposition that determines what must be done in a specific situation, what the norm orders, is not fulfilled. These ‘soft, green or flexible’ norms, come to recover for the legal field the basic characteristic of social norms, endowed with a tacit sanction that only entails to a greater or lesser extent a discredit or loss of public consideration” (Ibánez García (2018), p. 3).
- 16.
More specifically, Caamaño Anido and Calderón Carrero, after recognizing the existence of modifications to national legal systems in the light of soft law provisions, understand that, in those cases in which states do not carry them out, “they may suffer certain types of countermeasures by the organizations and institutions that have dictated them, such as, for example, inclusion in a ‘black list’, economic sanctions, obstruction of operations with the defaulting country by a block of countries that establish legislation to that effect, or simply the suspension of payments of an international credit” (Caamaño Anido (2002), pp. 245–288).
- 17.
Alarcón García (2010), p. 277.
- 18.
Bacigalupo (2005), p. 103.
- 19.
Information extracted from the following web link (in Spanish): https://www.uiaf.gov.co/asuntos_internacionales/organizaciones_internacionales/grupo_accion_financiera_7114 (Retrieved 14.04.2021).
- 20.
Blanco Cordero (2012), p. 173.
- 21.
“Introduction to the FATF Recommendations: The FATF Recommendations set an international standard that countries should implement through measures adapted to their particular circumstances.”
- 22.
Recommendation B. 3. Money laundering crime “Countries should criminalize […]”
- 23.
Blanco Cordero (2012), p. 173.
- 24.
In the latest FATF report evaluating Spain, the FATF gave it a score of 10 out of 11, which places it “as one of the countries with the safest money laundering prevention systems”
(https://www.mineco.gob.es/stfls/mineco/prensa/ficheros/noticias/2018/191204_np_2gafi.pdf) (Last consulted 07.11.2020).
- 25.
With respect to this feature, a parallel dilemma could be posed, which I will only indicate, and which would involve answering the following question: are all the conducts typified in the Criminal Code really worthy of reproach? In my opinion, no. It is necessary to recognize the existence of a transfer between the administrative (sanctioning) and criminal systems, which has only blurred the limits of the controversial boundary between the administrative illicit and the criminal infraction.
In this regard: Terradillos Basoco (2006), p. 70; Sotomayor Acosta (2008), p. 152; Navarro Cardoso 2020, p. 268 et seq.
- 26.
Demetrio Crespo (2020), p. 38.
- 27.
This would be a consequence of the fact that, “for reasons other than prevention or retribution, it strives to cover all corners of antisocial behavior” (Bajo Fernández (2013), p. 407). In similar terms, Díez Ripollés takes the position that “the modernization of criminal law is a consequence of the accommodation of the new post-industrial societies to the social rule of law model,” and where, in his opinion, “the increases in criminal intervention derive from the emergence of new social realities and conflicts that highlight the existence of relevant collective interests whose criminal protection is justified” (Díez Ripolles (2005), p. 01:7). On the case of economic criminal law: Gracia Martín (2003), p. 65.
- 28.
This is made clear by Bajo Fernandez, when he says “many economic crimes have arisen due to international pressure from technocratic officials ignorant of the principles of criminal law. The point is that these same officials who are tutors of international norms, when they take up the tasks of government in their own countries, invoke the norms that they themselves developed in international organizations to force their annexation to domestic law. Thus, crimes as debatable in their conception or scope as money laundering have been incorporated into Spanish criminal law” (Bajo Fernández (2013), pp. 409–410).
- 29.
Ibíd., p. 409.
- 30.
Ibíd., p. 407
- 31.
Felip and Saborit (2010), p. 64.
- 32.
Felip and Saborit (2010), p. 64.
- 33.
Demetrio Crespo (2020), p. 34.
- 34.
Demetrio Crespo (2020), p. 36.
- 35.
In the same sense: Jímenez Díaz (2014), p. 08:3.
- 36.
According to Díez Ripollés “classic criminal law would remain anchored in the protection of the catalog of traditional legal goods and where the usual and rigorous criteria of imputation and guarantees for the alleged offender would continue to govern” (Díez Ripolles (2005), p. 01:7).
- 37.
Corcoy-Bidasolo (2012), pp. 46–47.
- 38.
The reason for this would lie, according to this author, in the fact that “it punishes with disproportionate and unjustifiable penalties, behaviors far removed from the endangerment of the legal right and derogating or reducing the guarantees of the accused, transmutes it, within the framework of a logic of emergency or securitarian discourse, incompatible with the demands of a democratic ius puniendi, in one of the most clamorous examples of the sociotechnological foundation of a criminal Law converted into a political instrument with a breakdown of constitutional values and principles, into a tool to investigate and prosecute anomalous patrimonial situations” (Abel Souto (2016), p. 124).
- 39.
On the content of both types of conduct: Ibid., p. 127 et seq.
- 40.
More specifically, according to Quintero Olivares, this complexity of application is due to the large number of exceptions or variations, which, in his opinion, and due to an amalgam of complex causes, gives rise to the assertion that it is disfigured (Quintero Olivares (2020), p. 50).
- 41.
- 42.
Martínez - Buján, among other authors, is of this opinion when he states: “one of the most important issues that have arisen as a result of this phenomenon of expansion is the fact that a situation of tension has arisen, when trying to project on the new socioeconomic crimes general principles and dogmatic structures that were developed for the exegesis of traditional crimes, when the criminal law had not yet begun its modern phase of expansion to the protection of new legal goods” (Martinez - Buján Pérez (2014), p. 62).
- 43.
Quintero Olivares takes the opposite view when he understands that, as a result of the problems and specialties posed by economic criminal law, it has been preferred to “renounce the traditional theory of crime and admit that we are dealing with ‘another criminal law’, such as, for example, military criminal law. Thus we would have a criminal subsystem, in which there would be a special ‘General Part’ for economic crimes, at the center of which would be a reformulated theory of crime, in which all the particularities of economic crimes would be inserted, including general problems that are especially important for economic crime, such as, for example, the criminal liability of legal entities” (Quintero Olivares (2020), p. 51).
- 44.
On the concept of globalization: Romeo Maldana (2012), pp. 314–314.
- 45.
- 46.
- 47.
Silva Sánchez (1999), p. 72.
- 48.
Demetrio Crespo (2020), p. 37.
In similar terms, Jimenez Díaz takes a similar position, for whom “Current criminal law is a law in expansion as a response to the society of risk, so that what comes to be described as expansion of criminal law is basically linked to its use to defend modern society from the new dangers of the current post-industrial era” (Jímenez Díaz (2014), p. 08:3).
- 49.
Demetrio Crespo (2020), p. 69.
- 50.
Demetrio Crespo (2014), p. 5.
- 51.
Felip and Saborit (2010), p. 65.
For Demetrio Crespo, “The criminal law of the enemy is that which seeks to strip certain subjects of the category of citizens, who must be treated as mere ‘sources of danger’, who must be neutralized at any cost” and “is a consequence, among other factors, of the symbolic use of criminal Law and of the crisis of the Social State itself” and can thus “be identified without too much difficulty with a regressive current, which lacks constitutional legitimacy” (Demetrio Crespo (2020) pp. 15,17,38).
However, as the aforementioned author argues, “the expansion/modernization of criminal Law and the criminal Law of the enemy, must in principle be adequately differentiated because while the former focuses mainly on the field of economic criminal law, the latter mainly affects organized crime and terrorism.” However – continues Demetrio Crespo – “neither are phenomena to be treated in isolation because both share certain trends of contemporary criminal policy, in particular, the search for effectiveness and security” (Demetrio Crespo (2020), p. 68).
- 52.
Hassemer reminds us that “in the system of a Law of intervention, and above all criminal Law is such, the guarantees of the Rule of Law have normally played the role of conditioning the intrusions and their intensity to certain presuppositions, minimizing them and controlling them. In this context, the central principle is the proportionality of interventions, which must therefore be necessary and appropriate to achieve their objective, as well as reasonable in each case” (Hassemer (1998), p. 39).
- 53.
- 54.
Among others: SCR 1080/2010, of October 10 (JDE 2010/264941); SCR 690/2015, of October 27 (JDE 2015/216244).
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de la Cuerda Martín, M. (2023). The Impact of Soft Law on the Expansion of Criminal Law. In: Demetrio Crespo, E., García Figueroa, A., Marcilla Córdoba, G. (eds) Crisis of the Criminal Law in the Democratic Constitutional State. Legal Studies in International, European and Comparative Criminal Law, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13413-5_13
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