Short Biography

Born in Solothurn (Switzerland) on August 28, 1970. He was granted his LLB (1993) and Ph.D. (1997) at the University of Salamanca. Since 2011, he is a Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Toledo. He has participated as a speaker delivering scientific lectures in international conferences and he has been a Visiting Fellow in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy.

Visiting Research Scholar (Spain Government-funded Ph.D. Scholarship) at University of Cologne (1994-1995 and 1995-1996), Research Scholar at the Ludwig-Maximiliams-University Munich (2004), Humboldt Foundation Research Fellow at University of Cologne (2005-2006), Max-Planck-Society Research Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg im Breisgau (2008), Visiting Research Scholar at University of Cambridge (2009, 2012), HWK Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Delmenhorst (2010), Visiting Academic at University of Kiel (2013) and Visiting Research Scholar (Spain Government-funded Senior Research Scholarship) at European University Institute in Florence (2016).

Recognition of the academic and professional trajectory granted by the Ibero-American Institute of Criminal Law (2015). Visiting Professor at Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli (2018), Honorary Professor at the University of San Martín de Porres (2019), Doctor Honoris Causa by Universidad Togatorum of México (2021) and Visiting Professor at Università degli Studi di Bergamo (2021).

Associate member of several Spanish and International Scientific Committees. Board member of the Springer Book Series Legal Studies in International, European and Comparative Criminal Law and of Forensic and Legal Psychology (Frontiers in Psychology) as Review Editor. Director of the legal database entitled “Biblioteca Básica de Derecho Penal y Ciencias Penales”, which is published by Iustel.

Research Abstract

His main research interests are General Principles of Criminal Law, Philosophy of Punishment, Criminal Law Policy and Economic Criminal Law. He is currently working on interdisciplinary research between Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence and Criminal Law. 

He has written about fifty articles and several monographs, such as 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) and El Derecho penal del Estado de Derecho entre el espíritu de nuestro tiempo y la Constitución (2020).

Couthor and coordinator of the Handbooks entitled Lecciones y materiales para el estudio del Derecho penal. Tomo II. Teoría del delito (2. Ed., 2015) and Curso de Derecho penal. Parte General (3. Ed., 2016).

He has also edited several books, such as 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) y Derecho penal económico y teoría del delito (2020)

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