ARGENTINA[1]

General Information

Argentina is a federal democratic republic composed of twenty-four autonomous provinces, including the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, which is the seat of the federal government. Each province is divided into departamentos, which number 512 nationwide[2] . Argentina’s population was estimated at 38,854,000 in 2004. The average annual growth rate was 1.3% between 1995 and 2005. With a total area of 2,780,403 sq. km., Argentina has an average population density of thirteen inhabitants per sq. km [3]. According to ECLAC figures for 2003, 90.6% of the population lives in urban areas. [4]. The World Bank reports that 3% of the adult population (over the age of fifteen) is illiterate, slightly lower than the level of 3.3% reported in 1999[5]. In regard to population distribution, children under the age of fifteen accounted for 28.3% of the total population in 2001, down from 30.6% in 1991. Estimated life expectancy at birth for the 2000-2005 period is 74.1 years. In late 2002, 57.5% of Argentineans lived in poverty, a situation that began to change slowly in 2003. The poverty rate had dropped to 44.2% by the second half of 2004. After falling abruptly by 11% in 2002, Argentina’s GDP rose nine points in 2003; that same year per capita income was equal to US$3,650,[6] with purchasing power parity of US$11,410. In May 2002 the country experienced its highest unemployment rate ever (21.5%); however, this rate dropped to 15.6% exactly one year later and again to 12.1% in 2004[7] .

 

Judicial System Highlights

• Argentina’s judicial system is based on the civil or continental European legal tradition. As a federal state, the nation has twenty-five separate, independent judicial branches: the Federal Judicial Branch, the Judicial Branch of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, and twenty-three provincial judicial branches.

•  In 2003 there were 4,409 judges, or 11.4 per 100,000 inhabitants. That same year the federal judicial system had 820 judges, 311 prosecutors, 201 public defenders and 17,796 other officials and administrative staff members distributed among the National Judicial Branch, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office.

• The number of cases filed before the ordinary courts decreased by approximately 6% between 2000 and 2003, and in 2003 each judge had an average caseload of 3,012 [8]. In 2003 the first instance courts resolved an average of 8% more cases than in 2002, and left 10% of their cases pending at the end of that year.

• A rate of 3,355 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants was registered in 2003, and at the end of that year there were 51,998 inmates in the country’s prisons, or 137 per 100,000 inhabitants. Of these, 62% were awaiting sentencing.

• The provincial justice system had 3,532 judges and received 2,727,209 matters in ordinary jurisdiction in 2003.