Born in Solothurn, Switzerland, on August 28, 1970.
(§1) Academic Career
He obtained his LLB (1993) and PhD (1997) from the University of Salamanca. Since 2001, he has been an Associate Professor (profesor titular), and since 2011, a Full Professor (catedrático) of Criminal Law at the Faculty of Juridical and Social Sciences of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Toledo, Spain). He has also been a Visiting Professor at Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli (2018) and Università degli Studi di Bergamo (2021). He has been granted five six-year research periods and one of knowledge transfer.
(§2) Research Interests
His main research interests include the philosophy of punishment and sentencing, the general theory of crime, constitutional principles and economic criminal law. For over a decade, he has focused specifically on the interdisciplinary field of neuroscience (now also AI) and criminal law.
(§3) Research Stays & Fellowships
He has conducted research in Spain, Germany, the UK, and Italy, including fellowships at the University of Cologne (FPU, 1994-1996; Humboldt Foundation, 2005-2006), Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg (MPS, 2008), the Institute for Advanced Study in Delmenhorst (HWK, 2010), and the European University Institute in Florence (MECD, 2016). He has also completed research stays at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (2004), the University of Cambridge (2009, 2012), the University of Kiel (2013), and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2024).
(§4) Research Projects
Principal Investigator of the R&D&I project «Neuro-Human Rights and Criminal Law» (PID2023-149978NB-I00), having previously led the projects «Neurosciences and Criminal Law» (DER2009-09868) “Crisis of the Criminal Law in the Democratic Constitutional State” (BPLY/17/180501/000223) and «Criminal Law and Human Behavior» (RTI2018-097838-B-I00).
(§5) Recognitions
The Ibero-American Institute of Criminal Law recognized him for his academic and professional trajectory (2015). He was also appointed an Honorary Professor at the University of San Martín de Porres (2019) and awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa by Universidad Togatorum of Mexico (2021). Additionally, he became a Full Member of the Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities of Castilla-La Mancha (2022) and an Honorary Member of the Argentine Academy of Criminal Sciences (2023).
(§6) Scientific Committees
He is an associate member of several scientific committees. Since 2011, he has directed the Biblioteca Básica de Derecho Penal y Ciencias Penales (Iustel). Since 2020, he has been a board member of Legal Studies in International, European, and Comparative Criminal Law (Springer), a review editor for Forensic and Legal Psychology (Frontiers in Psychology) since 2021, and a member of the Expert Panel at The Centre for Neurotechnology and Law (London) since 2025.
(§7) Main Publications
7.1 Articles
About eighty articles in Spanish and other languages.
7.2 Books
-Prevención general e individualización judicial de la pena (1999; 2. Ed., 2016).
-La tentativa en la autoría mediata y en la actio libera in causa (2003; 2. Ed. 2019).
-Culpabilidad y fines de la pena, con especial referencia al pensamiento de Claus Roxin (2008, 2013).
-Responsabilidad penal por omisión del empresario (2009; 2. Ed., 2017)
-Fragmentos sobre Neurociencias y Derecho penal (2017).
-El Derecho penal del Estado de Derecho entre el espíritu de nuestro tiempo y la Constitución (2020).
-Espíritu del tiempo y Derecho penal (2022).
7.3 Handbooks
–Lecciones y materiales para el estudio del Derecho penal. Tomo II. Teoría del delito (2. Ed., 2015) (coauthor and coordinator)
–Curso de Derecho penal. Parte General (3. Ed., 2016) (coauthor and coordinator)
7.4 Edited Books
-Cuestiones actuales de Derecho penal económico (2008).
-Terrorismo y Estado de Derecho (2010).
-Cuestiones actuales de Derecho penal empresarial (2010).
-El Derecho penal económico y empresarial ante los desafíos de la sociedad mundial del riesgo (2010).
-Neurociencias y Derecho penal. Nuevas perspectivas en el ámbito de la culpabilidad y tratamiento jurídico-penal de la peligrosidad (2013; 2. Ed. 2021).
-Crisis financiera y Derecho penal económico (2014).
-Legalidad y defensa. Garantías constitucionales del Derecho y la Justicia penal (2015).
-Halcones y Palomas: corrupción y delincuencia económica (2015).
-Derecho penal económico y Derechos Humanos (2018).
-El delito fiscal. Aspectos penales y tributarios (2019).
-Derecho penal económico y teoría del delito (2020).
-Derecho penal y Comportamiento Humano. Avances desde la Neurociencia y la Inteligencia Artificial (2022).
-Crisis of the Criminal Law in the Democratic Constitutional State. Manifestations and Trends (2023).
Academic Networks
