10. November at 11 a.m.
WELCOME!
We kindly invite you to a lecture by Dr. Javier Velásquez entitled “Pre-trial detention in Chile: Between Time Management and Standardisation”, which will take place as part of Tuesday Meetings on Monday, 10 November 2025, at 11.00 a.m. in the library of the Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana.
The use of pre-trial detention in Chile is widely debated. While most Chilean legal scholars have advocated for a restrictive interpretation, empirical research shows that its application has increased over the past decade, accompanied by the development of standardized working strategies in judicial decision-making in this institution.
To date, however, there has been little in-depth analysis of the practice of this standardization and its specific relationship to pre-trial detention decisions. Based on non-participant observation of hearings and interviews with judges, prosecutors and defence attorneys in courts in the Araucanía and Bio-Bio regions, Dr. Velásquez will present an empirical analysis of the application of pre-trial detention in Chile. In particular, how does the standardization of judicial practices influence the way decisions on pre-trial detention are made in Chile?
He will focus on the bureaucratic management of time from a socio-legal perspective, a topic he examined in his most recent article. The study shows that, in the face of time pressures, courts have adopted specific strategies to organise hearings, generating different types of hearings, each with its own speed and logic of standardisation. The article emphasizes the need for a detailed, empirical exploration of bureaucratization within the judicial system and the tangible impacts these processes have on the fairness of access to justice.
The lecture will be held in English.
Javier Velásquez holds a PhD in Criminology from the University of Glasgow and the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (United Kingdom). He is currently an assistant professor at the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of O’Higgins and a member of the Socio-Legal Research Laboratory at the same University. His research focuses on two main areas: on the one hand, the study of criminal actors’ practices in operationalising the law, which he addressed in his doctoral dissertation and his Fondecyt Initiation grant; and on the other hand, the study of police use of force, particularly less-lethal force, for which has been awarded a Torture Prevention Fund to develop instruments for the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture.
Contact person and event moderator: Mojca M. Plesničar
No audio or video recording is allowed at the event, except with the express permission of the organizer.
