Direito ao duplo grau de jurisdição na América Latina: a perspectiva da corte interamericana de direitos humanos no caso Herrera Ulloa vs. Costa Rica

Abstract

The Herrera Ulloa Case vs. Costa Rica, sentenced by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, established that the fundamental right to appeal. Based on the art. 8.2.h of American Convention, it is a human right in terms of criminal law. The judgment from 2004 reflected throughout the whole of Latin America, confronting the procedural tradition in Hispanic America, which adopts first instance plural courts. The objective is to study the Convention’s norms and, particularly the sentencing aforementioned, facing the right to appeal in the Latin American internal legal orders and facing the procedural models applied to criminal systems within these countries. The research was carried out through bibliographical investigation over the Court’s case law and over the Commission’s reports, apart from the insights of specialized authors. It been seen that the traditional criminal systems in Hispanic America do not correspond to international premises. Furthermore, due to the nature of supremacy of inter-American norms and due to the decisions from the Inter-American System’s bodies substantial domestic legislative reforms have been envisioned in order to better safeguard human dignity towards the internal jurisdiction.