Esta obra estudia el trastorno mental como circunstancia excluyente de responsabilidad penal, para explicar por qué es tan difícil establecer la inimputabilidad por trastorno mental, a quién corresponde esa decisión, cómo operan en ella el principio in dubio pro reo y la carga de la prueba. Así, a lo largo de cinco capítulos reconstruye la evolución histórica de los métodos dominantes para su determinación en el proceso penal, se ocupa de explicar el método mixto como doctrina más aceptada actualmente, describe los procedimientos y criterios a los que la comunidad psiquiátrica reconoce valor científico e introduce algunos elementos tomados de la teoría de la acción comunicativa y de la teoría de los sistemas para abordar el estudio de la determinación de la inimputabilidad desde afuera del derecho y la psiquiatría. De este modo, a partir de esos elementos, reconstruye el proceso de formación de la decisión sobre la inimputabilidad por trastorno mental y explica cómo se relacionan el sistema jurídico y el sistema de salud, mediante una exposición acerca de las condiciones mínimas que debería tener un buen procedimiento enfocado en ello.

This article explores the black box of college adaptation and social integration of low SES students entering higher education under a forgivable loans program. It does so by studying a context of extreme educational and economic inequality. The magnitude of this study offers an unprecedented window to observe interactions between different social classes in college.

Drawing on two different fieldworks, this study is based on 19 focal groups in 8 cities and 12 universities, and in an in-depth study of one elite university.

Results show that low SES students actively mobilize different types of personal resources to integrate to the college environment, but they face strong objective and symbolic barriers. Results show also that regular students, on occasion, act as cultural guides for low SES students, helping them in the process of college adaption, and that colleges’ characteristics and diversity influence beneficiaries’ social integration and well-being.

This article estimates the effects on depressive symptoms, family relationships, social support, and academic self-efficacy of participating in a forgivable loan program, using an instrumental variable (IV) estimation strategy. In particular, we estimate local average treatment effects (LATE) of program participation on these variables, using program eligibility as an instrument. In this case, estimation needs to account for endogeneity, given that not all eligible students decided to participate in the program and that variables affecting the decision to participate in the program might be related to the psychological variables being evaluated. We found negative effects on all the psychological variables. Additionally, we found that program participants were significantly more likely to move and attend elite, accredited, and more expensive universities, which explains the observed psychological symptoms. Results are interpreted in terms of the pressures that non-traditional students receiving financial aid face when adapting to college.

This paper studies the recent evolution of life conditions in Colombia with an emphasis in the rise of the middle class. Between 2002 and 2011, household real income increased 36%, the middle class went from 16% to 27% of the total population, and the poverty rate dropped from 50% to 34%. At the same time, households across all social groups improved their life conditions in several dimensions: education, health, housing and employment, etc. Despite the progress, the size of the middle class in Colombia is still smaller than in other countries in Latin America, and many middle class households have not overcome the long-term problems of labor informality and deficient human capital.

Se lleva a cabo un planteamiento del estatus de la naturaleza en el ordenamiento jurídico como sujeto y objeto de derechos. Para lograr este objetivo, los autores se valen de una metodología inductiva a partir de un análisis descriptivo desde la doctrina, jurisprudencia y normas primarias. Con ello, se busca, en primer lugar, responder a la cuestión de si es posible o no que un ordenamiento jurídico contemple derechos de la naturaleza; en segundo lugar, se pretende evidenciar cómo el reconocimiento de derechos sobre la naturaleza por parte de la jurisprudencia en Colombia cuenta con presupuestos comunes pese a que aún no se contemplan reglas claras sobre la asignación de derechos a la naturaleza. Al final, se realiza un llamado de atención para comprender esta figura más como un instrumento que el Estado debe utilizar a favor de la naturaleza, que como un decálogo de derechos.

In this article we interrogate the recognition of rivers as legal persons in Aotearoa New Zealand (Whanganui River) and Colombia (Río Atrato). Although the legal, political, historical and cultural context for recognition is different in each country, an analysis of the cases presents some interesting conceptual correlations, which help us to understand this emerging (and sometimes controversial) transnational idea that a river can be a person. In both cases recognising that the river is a person is an attempt to accommodate diverse legal and cultural interests in the river, in order to establish a new collaborative relationship between the state and river communities.