Jan-Michael Simon

Crimin­al­ity of the power­ful in Lat­in Amer­ica, with par­tic­u­lar em­phas­is on Grand Cor­rup­tion: Re­search in­cludes the concept of –and dis­course on– polit­ic­al cor­rup­tion, its im­pact on polit­ic­al and crim­in­al justice sys­tems as well policies ad­dress­ing polit­ic­al cor­rup­tion (in­clud­ing pro­ced­ures for the se­lec­tion of law en­force­ment agents and judges). It also looks at the im­pact of polit­ic­al cor­rup­tion on hu­man rights (chal­len­ging the no­tion of polit­ic­al cor­rup­tion as a vic­tim­less crime) and on in­ter­na­tion­al se­cur­ity (chal­len­ging pre­sump­tions that the con­sequences of polit­ic­al cor­rup­tion are lim­ited to the do­mest­ic do­main). More re­cently, his re­search fo­cuses on the role played by in­ter­na­tion­al bod­ies cre­ated to sup­port na­tion­al law en­force­ment against polit­ic­al cor­rup­tion and hu­man rights vi­ol­a­tions.

Pun­ish­ment and the ex­er­cise of fun­da­ment­al rights in Lat­in Amer­ica: Re­search ad­dresses the inter re­la­tion between the polit­ic­al and the leg­al concept of a mono­pol­ized power of pun­ish­ment and the in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion of hu­man rights. Oth­er is­sues re­searched in­clude the lim­its of crim­in­al­iz­ing so­cial protest (in par­tic­u­lar through anti-ter­ror­ism le­gis­la­tion) as well as the lim­its of the pro­tec­tion of hon­or through crim­in­al law (in par­tic­u­lar the hon­or of seni­or na­tion­al of­fi­cials) vis-à-vis free­dom of ex­pres­sion.

Trans­ition­al justice in Lat­in Amer­ic­an post-con­flict and post-au­thor­it­ari­an so­ci­et­ies: Re­search fo­cuses on the the­ory of pun­ish­ment, crim­in­al li­ab­il­ity, stat­utes of lim­it­a­tion, ex­tra­ter­rit­ori­al crim­in­al jur­is­dic­tion and truth find­ing in and out­side the crim­in­al pro­cess as well as the ap­plic­ab­il­ity of in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law and of gen­er­al pub­lic in­ter­na­tion­al law in such con­texts. Re­search also ad­dresses mor­al (e.g. his­tor­ic­al guilt and ob­lig­a­tion of memory) and policy is­sues such as crim­in­al sanc­tions vs. con­flict res­ol­u­tion, truth seek­ing mech­an­isms vs. crim­in­al pro­cess and in­ter­na­tion­al crim­in­al jur­is­dic­tion vs. na­tion­al jur­is­dic­tion. 

Se­cur­ity and justice sec­tor re­forms in Lat­in Amer­ica: Re­search in­cludes the in­teg­ra­tion of mul­tiple crim­in­al justice sys­tems in fed­er­al polit­ic­al sys­tems (e.g. Mex­ico) and of dif­fer­ent no­tions of pro­tec­ted rights in cul­tur­ally het­ero­gen­eous so­ci­et­ies. Re­gard­ing the lat­ter, re­search con­cen­trated on en­vir­on­ment­al crim­in­al law re­lated to the con­sti­tu­tion­al right to a healthy, pro­tec­ted and bal­anced en­vir­on­ment (Bolivia) and the con­sti­tu­tion­al mod­el that con­ceives nature as Pacha Mama (Moth­er Earth in Quechua) and en­dows it with its own fun­da­ment­al rights (Ecuador). Re­search also in­cludes re­gion­al re­form agen­das tack­ling or­gan­ized crime and gen­er­al de­vel­op­ments of crim­in­al law and the rule of law in Lat­in Amer­ica .

At an in­ter­na­tion­al level, re­search find­ings on Lat­in Amer­ica have been shared in re­gions such as the Middle East (with fo­cus on con­flict and con­flict res­ol­u­tion) and Sub-Saha­ran Africa (with fo­cus on ad­dress­ing mass vi­ol­ence through crim­in­al law).