Máximo Langer

David G. Price and Dallas P. Price Professor of Law
Director of the UCLA Transnational Program on Criminal Justice
Faculty Director, Promise Institute for Human Rights
Faculty Director, Promise Institute Europe

  • LL.B. University of Buenos Aires Law School, 1995
  • S.J.D. Harvard, 2006
  • UCLA Faculty Since 2003

Máximo Langer holds the David G. Price and Dallas P. Price Chair in Law and is the Faculty Director for the Promise Institute of Human Rights and Promise Institute Europe and Director of the Transnational Program on Criminal Justice. He is a leading authority on domestic, comparative and international criminal law and procedure. He regularly lectures nationally and internationally about issues. His work has been translated into multiple languages and has received awards from different professional associations. Professor Langer is also President of the American Society of Comparative Law, the leading organization in the United States promoting the comparative study of law.

Besides teaching at UCLA, Professor Langer has taught at the University Torcuato DiTella School of Law in Argentina (where he has won multiple teaching awards), Harvard Law School (where he was Louis D. Brandeis Visiting Professor of Law), NYU School of Law, the School of Law of Aix-Marseille University in France, the University of Göttingen in Germany, and the PUCRS in Brazil. He has also served on various boards and committees of the American Society of Comparative Law, the American Society of International Law, and the UCLA Latin American Institute. He was the founding director of the UCLA Center for Southern Cone Studies and the founding faculty director of the UCLA School of Law Criminal Justice Program (2016-2021). He also serves on several editorial boards, including the executive editorial board of the American Journal of Comparative Law, and was co-director of the Annual Comparative Law Work-in-Progress Workshop (co-sponsored by the American Society of Comparative Law). He is also a Member of the American Law Institute and a Titular Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law.

Professor Langer received his LL.B. from the University of Buenos Aires Law School (1995), where he was editor of the University of Buenos Aires Law Review, was awarded the Fundación Universitaria del Rio de la Plata Fellowship and graduated in the top 1% of his class. He entered the LL.M. program at Harvard Law School in 1998 and then switched to the S.J.D. program. At Harvard, he was awarded several fellowships, including the Edmond J. Safra Graduate Fellowship in Ethics from the Harvard University Center for Ethics, a Fellowship from the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, a Fellowship of the Center for Studies and Research in International Law and International Relations from The Hague Academy of International Law, and the Fulbright Fellowship.

Before leaving Argentina for Harvard, Professor Langer served as a legal clerk in Argentinean Federal District Court No. 2 (1993-1994), and worked in white-collar criminal law litigation in Buenos Aires (1994-1998). He also served as director of the Non-Conventional Offenses Program at the Institute for Comparative Studies in Criminal and Social Sciences (1997-1998) and worked as legal advisor to the Commissions of Justice and Criminal Law under Argentinean Congressman Jose Cafferata Nores (1998). He also worked in the United States in the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (2001).

Bibliography

  • Books
    • American Juvenile Justice and the Problem of Adversarial Power (with David S. Tanenhaus). Oxford Univ. Press (forthcoming, 2025).
    • Research Handbook of Plea Bargaining (edited by Máximo Langer, Mike McConville, and Luke Marsh). Elgar Publishers (forthcoming 2024).
    • Justicia Penal y Mecanismos De Condena Sin Jucio. Estudios Sobre América Latina (edited by Máximo Langer & Máximo Sozzo). Marcial Pons publishers, Madrid, (2023).
    • Prosecutors and Democracy: A Cross-National Study (edited by Máximo Langer & David Alan Sklansky). Cambridge University Press (2017).
    • Juvenile Justice in Global Perspective (edited by Máximo Langer, David S. Tanenhaus, Franklin E. Zimring). New York University Press (2015).
    • Crime, Procedure, and Evidence in a Comparative and International Context: Essays in Honour of Professor Mirjan Damaška (edited by John Jackson, Maximo Langer and Peter Tillers). Hart Publishing (2008).
  • Articles And Chapters
    • Plea Bargaining as Second-Best Criminal Adjudication and the Future of Criminal Procedure Thought in Global Perspective, in Research Handbook of Plea Bargaining, (edited by Máximo Langer, Mike McConville, and Luke Marsh, Elgar Publishers, (forthcoming 2024). Full Text
    • Plea Bargaining in Latin America (with Máximo Sozzo), in Research Handbook of Plea Bargaining, (edited by Máximo Langer, Mike McConville, and Luke Marsh eds., Elgar Publishers, (forthcoming 2024). Full Text
    • Plea Bargaining, condenas sin juicio y la administrativización global de las condenas penales 73-152, in Justicia Penal y Macanismos de Condena Sin Juicio. Estudios Sobre América Latina, (edited by Máximo Langer & Máximo Sozzo eds, Marcial Pons publishers, Madrid, (2023).
    • Mecanismos de imposición de condenas sin juicio y sistemas acusatorios en América Latina. Balance y perspectivas 383-415 (with Máximo Sozzo), (edited by Máximo Langer & Máximo Sozzo eds., Marcial Pons, Madrid, 2023).
    • Introducción: Reforma de la justicia penal y mecanismos de imposición de condenas sin juicio en América Latina 15-71 (with Máximo Sozzo), in Justicia Penal y Macanismos de Condena Sin Juicio. Estudios Sobre América Latina, (edited by Máximo Langer & Máximo Sozzo eds., Marcial Pons, Madrid, (2023).
    • Migration and the Demand for Transnational Justice, 116-4 American Political Science Review 1184 (Cambridge University Press, 2022). (with Leslie Johns and Margaret E. Peters), Full Text
    • The Diffusion of Plea Bargaining and the Global Administratization of Criminal Convictions, in Research Handbook of Comparative Criminal Justice 84, (edited by David Nelken and Claire Hamilton, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022). Republished in Research Handbook of Plea Bargaining, (Máximo Langer, Mike McConville, and Luke Marsh eds., Elgar Publishers, forthcoming 2024).
    • Plea Bargaining, Conviction without Trial, and the Global Administratization of Criminal Convictions, 4 Annual Review of Criminology 377 (2021). Article | Full Text
    • Penal Abolitionism and Criminal Law Minimalism: Here and There, Now and Then, 134 Harvard Law Review Forum 42 (2020). Full Text
    • La Silenciosa Expansión de la Jurisdicción Universal, 105 Lecciones y Ensayos 27.  (trans. by Milagros Merega y Santiago Schipetto, 2020) (with Mackenzie Eason). Full Text
    • The Quiet Expansion of Universal Jurisdiction (with Mackenzie Eason), 30 European Journal of International Law 779 (2019).
    • Quince Años Después: Traducciones Legales, Globalización del Plea Bargaining y Americanización del Proceso Penal, 21 Revista Discusiones 213 (2018). Full Text
    • Prosecutors and Democracy—Themes and Counterthemes (with David Alan Sklansky), in Prosecutors and Democracy: A Cross-National Study, 300 (edited by Máximo Langer & David Alan Sklansky, Cambridge University Press, 2017). Full Text
    • Introduction (with David Alan Sklansky), in Prosecutors and Democracy: A Cross-National Study, 1 (edited by Máximo Langer & David Alan Sklansky, Cambridge University Press, 2017).
    • In the Beginning Was Fortescue: On the Intellectual Origins of the Adversarial and Inquisitorial Systems and Common and Civil Law in Comparative Criminal Procedure, in Liber Amicorum for Mirjan Damaška, 273 (Duncker & Humblot, 2016). Full Text. En el principio era Fortescue: Acerca de los orígines intelectuales de los sistemas acusatorio e inquisitivo, y de la contraposición entre derecho anglosajón y derecho continental europeo en el proceso penal comparado, 4 En Letra Derecho Penal 191 (2017).
    • Strength, Weakness or Both? On the Endurance of the Adversarial and Inquisitorial Systems in Comparative Criminal Procedure, in Research Handbook on Comparative Criminal Procedure, 519 (edited by Jacqueline Ross & Stephen Thaman, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016). Full Text
    • Universal Jurisdiction is not Disappearing: The Shift from "Global Enforcer" to "No Safe Haven" Universal Jurisdiction, 13 Journal Of International Criminal Justice 245 (2015). Full Text
    • La jurisdicción universal no está desapareciendo: el giro desde una jurisdicción universal como “persecución global” hacia una jurisdicción universal como "ausencia de refugio seguro", En Letra. Derecho Penal 175 (2015). (Leandro A. Dias trans.) Full Text
    • One Theme or Many? The Search for a Deep Structure in Global Juvenile Justice (with Franklin E. Zimring), in Juvenile Justice in Global Perspective, 383-411 (edited by Máximo Langer, David S. Tanenhaus, Franklin E. Zimring, New York University Press, 2015). Full Text
    • Myths and Realities of Juvenile Justice in Latin America (with Mary Beloff), in Juvenile Justice in Global Perspective, 198-248 (edited by Máximo Langer, David S. Tanenhaus, Franklin E. Zimring, New York University Press, 2015). Full Text
    • Introduction (with Franklin E. Zimring & David S. Tanenhaus), in Juvenile Justice in Global Perspective, 1-5 (edited by Máximo Langer, David S. Tanenhaus, Franklin E. Zimring, New York University Press, 2015).
    • The Archipelago and the Hub: The Universal Jurisdiction and the International Criminal Court Regimes, in The First Global Prosecutor: Promise and Constraints, 204-250 (edited by Martha Minow, Cora True-Frost and Alex Whiting, Univ. of Michigan Press, 2015). Full Text
    • El Nuevo Código Procesal Penal Nacional Acusatorio: Aportes Empíricos para la Discusión en Base a la Experiencia en Provincia de Buenos Aires (with Marcelo Bergman), 2015 Revista de Derecho Procesal Penal 51 (2015).
    • Reforma a la Justicia Penal Juvenil y Adolescentes Privados de Libertad en Chile: Aportes Empíricos para el Debate (with Ricardo Lillo), 19 Política Criminal 713 (2015). Full Text
    • The Long Shadow of the Adversarial and Inquisitorial Categories, in The Oxford Handbook of Criminal Law, 887 (edited by Markus D. Dubber and Tatjana Höernle, Oxford University Press, 2014). Full Text
    • La portée des categories accusatoire et inquisitoire, 4 Revue de Sciences Criminelle et de Droit Penal Compare 707 (2014). (Amanda Cabrejo de Roux & Sabrina Delattre trans.)
    • La Larga Sombra de las Categorías Acusatorio e Inquisitivo, 32 Revista de Derecho Público de la Universidad de Los Andes 1 (2014). (Lucas Tassara trans.) Full Text; Republished in 1 Revista Brasileira de Direito Processual Penal 11 (2015).
    • A Grande Sombra das Categorias Acusatório e Inquisitório, in Sistemas Processuais Penais, 307 (edited by Ricardo Jacobsen Gloeckner, Empório do direito, 2016).
    • Universal Jurisdiction as Janus-Faced: The Dual Nature of the German International Criminal Code, 11 Journal of International Criminal Justice 737 (2013). Full Text
    • Das Völkerstrafgesetzbuch und die Prinzipien der Beteiligung und Rechenschaft gegenüber der internationalen Gemeinschaft, in Zehn Jahre VStGB. Bilanz und Perspektiven eines "deutschen Völkerstrafrechts", 253-282 (edited by Florian Jessberger and Julia Geneuss; Julia Geneuss trans., Nomos Publishers, 2013).
    • Rights in the Criminal Process: A Case Study of Convergence and Disclosure Rights (with Kent Roach), in Handbook on Constitutional Law, 273 (edited by Mark Tushnet, Thomas Fleiner and Cheryl Saunders, Routledge, 2013). Full Text
    • Direitos no processo penal: um estudo de caso sobre convergência e direitos de "disclosure” (with Kent Roach), 239 Revista brasileira de ciências criminais 273 (2015). (Rogério Fernando Taffarello trans.)
    • Managerial Judging Goes International but its Promise Remains Unfulfilled: An Empirical Assessment of the ICTY Reforms (with Joseph W. Doherty), 36 Yale Journal of International Law 241 (2011).
    • The Diplomacy of Universal Jurisdiction: The Political Branches and the Transnational Prosecution of International Crimes, 105 American Journal of International Law 1 (2011). Reprinted in V International Criminal Law. Critical Concepts in Law 70 (edited by Antonio Cassese, Florian Jeßberger, Robert Cryer & Urmila Dé, Routledge 2016). Full Text
    • La Diplomacia de la Jurisdicción Universal: Los Poderes Políticos y la Persecución de Crímenes Internacionales, 1 Revista Latinoamericana de Derecho International (Latin American International Law Journal) 1 (2014). (Translated by Manuel Ayarra y Francisco José Quintana.)
    • Trends and Tensions in International Criminal Procedure: A Symposium, 14 UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs 1 (2009).
    • Revolución en el Proceso Penal Latinoamericano: Difusión de Ideas Legales desde la Periferia, ( CEJA, 2008). Reprinted in Revista de Derecho Procesal Penal-Numero Extraordinario. II El Proceso Penal Adversarial 53 (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2009); in 4 Revista Derecho Penal Mínimo 23 (Federal District, Mexico, 2010); and in Sociología de la Justicia Penal (Ezequiel Kostenwein ed., Ediar, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2017). Full Text
    • Introduction (with John Jackson), in Crime, Procedure, and Evidence in a Comparative and International Context, (edited by John Jackson, Maximo Langer and Peter Tillers, Hart Publishing, 2008).
    • Revolution in Latin American Criminal Procedure: Diffusion of Legal Ideas from the Periphery, 55 American Journal of Comparative Law 617 (2007). Translated to Chinese by Zhou Jing and Shi Pengpeng as [美]马克西姆•兰格著,施鹏鹏、周婧译:“拉丁美洲的刑事诉讼程序改革——源自边缘国家法律思想的传播”,载陈兴良主编,《刑事法评论》第30卷,北京:北京大学出版社,2012年版,第255页 (published in China’s 30 Criminal Law Review 255 (2012), Peking University Press). Full Text
    • Plea Bargaining, in Encyclopedia of Law and Society: American and Global Perspectives, (edited by David S. Clark, Sage Publications, 2007).
    • Rethinking Plea Bargaining: The Practice and Reform of Prosecutorial Adjudication in American Criminal Procedure, 33 American Journal of Criminal Law 223 (2006). Full Text
    • El Sistema del Tribunal Gerencial en el Tribunal Penal Internacional para la ex-Yugoslavia (The Managerial Judging System in the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia), in Estudios sobre la Justicia Penal: Homenaje al Prof. Julio B.J. Maier, (edited by David Baigun, et al., Del Puerto, 2005).
    • The Rise of Managerial Judging in International Criminal Law, 53 American Journal of Comparative Law 835 (2005). Reprinted in International Criminal Justice 1 (edited by Ruth Wedgwood, The Hague Academy of International Law, forthcoming). Full Text
    • From Legal Transplants to Legal Translations: The Globalization of Plea Bargaining and the Americanization Thesis in Criminal Procedure, 45 Harvard International Law Journal 1-64 (2004). Full Text |Translated to Chinese by Cheng Lei as 从法律移植到法律翻译:辩诉交易的全球化和刑事诉讼的美国化 China Procuratorate Press (June 2005). English version reprinted in World Plea Bargaining: Consensual Procedures and the Avoidance of the Full Criminal Trial (edited by Stephen Thaman, 2010); and in Classics in Comparative Law (edited by Francesco Parisi, Tom Ginsburg & Pier Giuseppe Monateri, 2014). Translated to Portuguese by Ricardo Jacobsen Gloeckner as Dos Transplantes Jurídicos às Traduções Jurídicas: a Globalizaçõa do Plea Bargaining e a Tese da Americanizaçõo do Processo Penal, 2 Delictae (2017), available here. Translated to Spanish by Lucas Tassara as De los transplantes legales a las traducciones legal: la globalización del plea bargaining y la tesis de la “americanización” en el proceso panel, 21 Discusiones 25 (2018) (with a special symposium on the article).
    • La Dicotomía Acusatorio Inquisitivo y la Importatión de Mecanismos Procesales de la Tradición Jurídica Anglo-Sajona [The Adversarial-Inquisitorial Dichotomy and the Importation of Procedural Mechanisms from the Common Law Tradition], Procedimiento Abreviado [Plea Bargaining] 97-134 (edited by Julio Maier and Alberto Bovino, Del Puerto, 2001). Reprinted in Las Garantías Penales Y Procesales Penales. Enfoque Histórico-Comparado [ Criminal Law And Criminal Procedure Protections. Historical And Comparative Perspectives] 239 (edited by Edmundo S. Hendler, 2001).  Article Link
    • El Principio In Dubio Pro Reo y su Control en Casación [The Beyond a Reasonable Doubt Standard and its Control by the Court of Appeals], 1998A Nueva Doctrina Penal 215 (1998-2001).
    • Acusación y Sentencia [Indictment and Sentence] (with Julio Maier), 1996B Nueva Doctrina Penal 617 (1996).
    • La Requisa Personal en la Jurisprudencia de la Cámara National de Casación Penal [Personal Searches in the Precedents of the Argentine Court of Appeals], 1996A Nueva Doctrina Penal 229 (1996).
    • Bosquejo para una Historia de la Historia [Sketch for a History of History] (with Hernán Charosky), 8 No Hay Derecho 16 (1992).
    • Crítica Destructiva. Por un Nihilismo Criminológico (with Hernán Charosky), 7 No Hay Derecho 32 (1992).
  • Reports
    • Country Report United States, in Rechtshilfrecht in Strafsachen (Mutual Assistance In Criminal Matters) 1783 (edited by Kai Ambos, Stefan König & Peter Rackow, Nomos, 2020). Prior edition: 2014.
    • Creating a Needs-Based Pre-Trial Release System: The False Dichotomy of Money Bail Versus Risk Assessment Tools (with Alicia Virani et al.), UCLA School of Law Criminal Justice Program and Bail Practicum (2020). Full Text
    • ¿A quién y cómo se juzga en la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires? (2017) (Who and How Are Cases Adjudicated in the City of Buenos Aires?) (with Marcelo Bergman and Gustavo Fondevila), available at http://celiv.untref.edu.ar/descargas/00-Informe_CELIV_2017_web.pdf
    • ¿Cómo se juzga en el Estado de México? Una Radiografía de la operación del sistema de justicia penal acusatorio, (2016). (How Are Cases Adjudicated in the State of Mexico? An X-Ray of the Operation of the Adversarial Criminal Justice System, with Gustavo Fondevila, Marcelo Bergman, Carlos Vilalta y Alberto Mejia). UCLA School of Law, Transnational Program on Criminal Justice.
    • Country Report United States, in Rechtshilfrecht in Strafsachen (Mutual Assistance In Criminal Matters) (edited by Kai Ambos, Stefan König & Peter Rackow, Nomos, 2014).
  • Other
    • Myanmar: The case for universal jurisdiction, Jakarta Post, February 1, 2023,. Full Text
    • Foreword: How to Harmonize Procedural Guarantees with the Right to Access to Justice, in Understanding Due Process in Non-Criminal Matters vii-x (IUS Gentium, 2022).
    • Migrants and Justice Remittances (with Leslie Johns and Margaret E. Peters), in OPINIO JURIS (June 16, 2022). Full Text
    • Germany convicted a Syrian man of war crimes in Syria. Can national courts prosecute injustices everywhere? (with Leslie Johns and Margaret E. Peters), Washington Post Online (January 14, 2022). Full Text
    • Julio B. J. Maier: Modelo de Jurista, Maestro, Juez y Hombre Público. In Memoriam, X-9 Revista De Derecho Penal y Criminología 42 (Sept. 2020).
    • Plea Bargaining y Acuerdos de Culpabilidad en la Obra de Máximo Langer (“Plea Bargaining and Guilty Plea Agreements in the Work of Máximo Langer”), Departamento de Derecho Penal y Criminología, Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (Criminal Law and Criminology Department, School of Law of the University of Buenos Aires), June 2020. Full Text
    • Entrevista por Juan Carlos Ruas, El poder del juicio abreviado en América Latina: entrevista a Máximo Langer sobre los primeros resultados de la investigación empírica, in Derecho Penal y Criminología. Gacetilla del Departamento de Derecho Penal y Criminología, Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Buenos Aires (June 2020). Also available as a video clip on YouTube. | Full Text
    • Profesor de UCLA y procedimientos consensuados, El Mercurio Legal (June 23, 2019).
    • Entrevista a Máximo Langer por Diego Zysman Quirós, 6 Enfoques Penales (May 2018). Available here.
    • Forward, in VictimsRights in Flux: Criminal Justice Reform in Colombia by Astrid Liliana Sánchez-Mejia, pp. vii-ix (2017).
    • La justicia penal que tenemos: una radiografía (with Marcelo Bergman), Clarín (June 19, 2017).
    • Entrevista a Máximo Langer: Pasado, Presente y Futuro del Derecho Penal Internacional (Interview of Máximo Langer: Past, Present and Future of International Criminal Law), in 4 Latin American Journal of International Law (2016).
    • Interview of Mirjan Damaška, in Crime, Procedure, and Evidence in a Comparative and International Context (edited by John Jackson, Maximo Langer and Peter Tillers, Hart Publishing, 2008).
    • Experiencias Comparadas II [Comparative Experiences II], in Memorias. Foro Nacional “Reforma a las Funciones Judicial de la Fiscalía General de la Nación” (May, 2001). Printed version of the lecture given in the Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia
    • Seguridad Ciudadana y Policía [Public Safety and the Police], 10 No Hay Derecho 12 (1993).
    • Dependencia Política del Poder Judicial. Una Consecuencia de la Constitución [Political Dependence of the Judiciary: A Consequence of the Argentinean Constitution] en Sentencia # 11 (1993).
    • La Oscuridad de un Decreto a la Luz de la Constitución [The Darkness of a Decree under Constitutional Light] (with Carolina Fernández Blanco), 1 Revista Jurídica Del Centro De Estudiantes De La Facultad De Derecho Y Ciencias Sociales 16 (1992).
    • Todo un ex-ministro. Reportaje a León Arslanián [A True Former Secretary. Interview of León Arslanián] (with Martín Abregú), 8 No Hay Derecho 6 (1992).
    • ¿Original o Fotocopia? Estudiantes y Política [Original or Copy? Students and Politics] (with Hernán Charosky and Guillermo Jorge), 5 No Hay Derecho (1991).