“Víctor Turbí believes that we all agree on a new Penal Code”

Santo Domingo, DR.- The prominent jurist Víctor Turbí Ysabel asserted that, “due to the multiplicity of more than significant aspects, not only in the legal sphere, the vast majority of the population agrees with the imperative need for a new punitive instrument to come into force in Dominican legislation”.

Meanwhile, he stated that various sectors also agree that there are, evidently, several unconstitutional articles in the new Law no. 74-26, which establishes the new Dominican Penal Code.

He recalled that the Constitutional Court is seized of several direct actions of unconstitutionality, through “concentrated control”; however, so far none have been ruled upon due to issues of time and deadlines. He pointed out that leaving these potential unconstitutionalities to be claimed individually through “diffuse control” would be, in his view, an unnecessary legal imprudence.

Likewise, he indicated that a bill with a single article, several recitals and hearings, sent by the Executive Branch to the National Congress, could allow the latter to extend or prolong the vacatio legis for six more months. He explained that this would not repeal or modify the content of the new Code, but would maintain the same current status during that period.

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He said that the above would contribute to “not complicating things much more for the different actors in the criminal justice system, but above all, going forward, with the entry into force of the rule for people in conflict with criminal law, regarding their rights and guarantees.”

Furthermore, he maintained that this measure would provide an opportunity for the Constitutional Court to verify, analyze, and issue its opinion in a profound manner regarding a regulation of such importance for any society.

Likewise, legal professional Víctor Turbí added that “one must never forget that this is not about implementing a civil, labor, commercial, or other type of regulation in this context, but one of a purely criminal nature: prison versus freedom,” the jurist concluded.