Can Criminal Procedure Ever Be “Modern”? A Historical Comparative Perspective (Editorial of the Dossier “History of Criminal Procedure in Modernity”) (original) (raw)

This article is not a mere introduction to the dossier of the Revista Brasileira de Direito Processual Penal on “History of Criminal Procedure in Modernity” (composed of 13 contributions on Belgium, Brazil, Finland, France, Italy and The Netherlands), but it also touches upon three methodological questions of comparative legal history. The first one relates to the proper concept of “modernity”, which can be understood differently, not only in various scientific areas (sociology, 1 Professor of Legal History at the Faculty of Law and Criminology, Ghent University (Flanders, Belgium). Co-director of the Ghent Legal History Institute. Honorary member of the Ghent Bar and substitute justice of the peace at Kortrijk. 2 Professor of Legal History at the Faculty of Law, Federal University of Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil). Coordinator of the Studium Iuris – Research Group on the History of Legal Culture (CNPq/UFMG). PhD in Teoria e Storia del Diritto, University of Flo...