Criminal Law Norms and Conflict of Duties

Abstract

This paper analyses the relationship between the "judge's system" and the "citizen's system" in the specific field of criminal law, exploring a different pathological alternative: the peculiar reactions of the judge's normative system (prima facie complete and consistent) to the existence of conflicts of criminal-legal duties in the citizen's system. Specifically, we examine the conflicts of legal-penal duties arising from the offence of fraudulent bankruptcy (art. 176 inc. 3º of the Argentine Criminal Code) and the offence of writing bad cheques (art. 302 inc. 1º of the Argentine Criminal Code).