In February 2015, the Institute for Comparative Studies in Criminal and Social Sciences (INECIP, by its Spanish acronym) organized a “Course on litigation skills for an oral trial”, aimed at members of the Financial Information Unit. CIPCE’s Executive Director, Agustín Carrara, was a part of the team of professors, along with Fernando Carbajal.
The course had 35hs of work in total, from Monday 9 to Friday 13 of that month. There were constant practical activities, practicing exercises and rehearsing hearings.
The issues discussed involved the following: an introduction to litigation in oral trials in the context of an accusatory and adversarial system; the elaboration of the case theory; the opening arguments; the direct examination of witnesses and experts; the cross-examinations; the use in trial of previous statements; the use of physical and documentary evidence; and the closing argument. Throughout the course, the attendants worked with a model money laundering case, in order to understand how to elaborate a case theory for these specific crimes.