Regulación y tratamiento jurídico-penal de las formas contemporáneas de esclavitud

Abstract

The history of slavery shows us its great capacity to adapt to political, social and economic changes. Currently, although slavery, servitude and forced labour have been prohibited in every country around the world, similar practices remain, adapting to existing dynamics and the new context of restrictive migration policies, business deregulation, etc. The aim of this work is to disentangle the muddied regime of what is covered by the umbrella term “contemporary forms of slavery” and to justify, legally and criminally, why it is necessary to criminalize slavery, servitude and forced labour within the Spanish Criminal Code. To achieve this aim, we will first have to carry out an in-depth study of each of the concepts, establishing its very content and their distinctive notes. We will consider the legal and historical development, in order to avoid an excessive distance between the legal concept and the social institution. In addition, we will use the existing legal tools –especially the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties– to provide normative content for each of the concepts. Secondly, the legal-criminal arguments that justify the need for the inclusion of crimes with a specific label in our criminal law are developed. Finally, in the light of the above, the proposal of a specific offence is outlined, taking into account the previous considerations. Although slavery was abolished a hundred years ago, it still exists, taking advantage of the fact that it remains invisible. The aim of my thesis is to change this, because one cannot fight something that apparently does not exist