http://dx.doi.org/10.14718/NovumJus.2020.14.2.1

Fernanda Navas-Camargo

Research professor of the research group: People, Institutions, and Demands of Justice, of the Catholic University of Colombia Law School

Guest editor

The objective of this number is to present the impact of the application of law on the evolution of social phenomenon in the Global South. This installment is aimed at analyzing from different perspectives problems whose connection is the characteristics that, attributable to the particularities of this part of the planet, shape the need to continue efforts to promote ideas that are not our own.

At the time of writing of this text, the entire world is undergoing an unprecedented health emergency. This immediately leads one to consider the way in which traditional social problems, if ordinary crimes may be called such, are beginning to transform, and actions and ideas aimed at overcoming uncertainties, creating wellbeing, and envisioning a new way of living are being developed because, as has been said repeatedly, returning to what we knew as normality is not an option. Considering that state of things as normal involves retrogressing in what little or much we have managed to evolve during the days of mandatory quarantine, which have been stained with death, illness, and, in some cases, encouraging numbers of recovery.

This evolution, which must continue, cannot ignore the place from where we come. Continuing socio-legal observation will be crucial, which involves being fully aware of what is occurring around us and changing the way in which our interpersonal relationships in social and private spheres are carried out.

Thus, an important element toward the transformation underway is the presentation of the results of research groups whose common goal has been to observe, critique, and propose actions regarding the impact of the law on social events.

An objective of part of the current number of Novum Jus is to survey the state of the study of criminology from the perspective of the Global South. The proposals included address diverse topics, including reviewing the way in which certain concepts are applied within the sphere of study of criminology, or the need to recover ideas of critical criminology created in Colombia, led by Emiro Sandoval Huertas, which, after his death in the takeover of the Palace of Justice, did not evolve as expected.

It includes a review of the state of the art in the Latin American context with respect to the concept of symbolic violence and its use in academic texts. The period under analysis includes the years between 2009 and 2019 and concludes that the sphere where the term is most used is in gender studies. Additionally, the journal includes a critique of the Peruvian Code of Criminal Liability of Adolescents for failing to include or contemplate the need to develop a criminological profile of juvenile offenders and its consequent impact on citizen safety. The author argues the current system is ineffective, and supported by unconstitutional proceedings and State absence regarding effective readaptation and social reinsertion.

A gender perspective receives an important contribution with the analysis of the conceptual deficiency regarding the recognition of the specific harms women victims of armed conflicts around the world suffer. Transitional states are analyzed and the study is contextualized within the margins of public international law and feminist theories. As a response to the deficiency identified, the author proposes the conceptualization of "harms of secondary recognition."

To revisit a problem that has been the basis for a multitude of conflicts related to violence, social inequality, and inequity, a study outlines the operations of drug trafficking transnational organized crime, in particular Mexican and Colombian cartels.

On another note, an article delves into legal reflections regarding the Colombian legal system and its application of advance directives. This prior decision making regarding medical intervention is controversial, but relevant, given the worldwide health emergency in which the COVID-19 pandemic has placed us. Making it possible to fulfill patient wishes is a step toward the protection of human rights.

Also very relevant to the situation the world has lived during 2020, and related to one of the negative consequences of the pandemic, the increase in the rates of domestic violence, an article ponders the police work of the Justice Houses and Civic Coexistence Centers. It also reflects on the rights of children in regards to nationality and the situation of statelessness.

It also examines the political Left, which considers the democratic element in Colombia to be politically relevant, and includes a historical-sociological perspective for its analysis.

This installment is the result of the collective work carried out by curious minds who are concerned by the development of our social realities. This, in addition to the increasing visibility and regional, domestic, and international recognition the legal and political sociology journal Novum Jus from the Catholic University of Colombia Law School has achieved, makes this edition essential reading.

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