Local uses of Tratados de Legislación Civil y Penal, by Jeremy Bentham, at the beginning of the republic

Abstract

This article intends an approach to local uses of Tratados de Legislación
Civil y Penal by Jeremy Bentham, between 1820 and 1835. It argues that his
work may have failed to influence the law-making in the early years of Republican Age on a local context. Legislation inspired by Bentham’s approaches
were limited to the enactment of
“Ley 18 de 1826” which adopted the “new
curriculum” and ordered the teaching of the “Tratados de Legislación” in Jurisprudence curriculum, and “Ley de 1835” that reintroduced
those studies
after being banned by order of Simon Bolivar. It is suggested that the ideal of a
universal legal reform as proposed by Bentham did not occur in the first years
of republican life and his work, perhaps, was a local unpredictable application
on legal education. Therefore, it may be stated that the use of Tratados de Legislación Civil y Penal may be aimed at “Educational Reform” to train new
generations of lawyers who, it was believed, would frame the legal changes that
were needed to rationalize the State: as it was intended by some of the Founding Fathers of the Republic.