Lawyers support amendments to the Penal Code, but reject further postponements

Lawyers agreed that the new Penal Code could be subject to modifications to strengthen constitutional guarantees, although they expressed conflicting positions on whether those changes should be made before or after it enters into force.

Legal expert Carlos Heredia maintained that the proposed modifications are pertinent and considered that the country has developed an extensive dialogue process regarding the legislative piece. In his view, the Code should enter into force without further delays.

“The law must come into effect. That cannot be postponed. If modifications are to be made to it, let them be before or after, but the Code must not continue to be delayed,” he stated.

Instead, lawyer Luis Arturo Rodríguez considered that Congress should have waited for a pronouncement from the Constitutional Court regarding the appeals filed before pushing for new modifications, in order to determine if there were truly provisions that violated fundamental rights.

Rodríguez maintained that the review was necessary due to concerns raised by different sectors of the citizenry, although he insisted that the process should have been developed with the prior judgment of the high court.

We recommend reading:

For his part, lawyer Tauri Pérez stated that all legislation is capable of being improved and favored that Congress listen to the observations made by various sectors to guarantee an updated Penal Code adapted to the current reality.

“Any code can be improved. The important thing is to have a modern code that guarantees rights and responds to current times,” he expressed.

The opinions were offered during a legal activity held in Santo Domingo, where other topics related to the justice system and the future of the lawyers’ association were also addressed.