1st Edition

Law and Society in Latin America A New Map

Edited By Cesar Garavito Copyright 2015
    306 Pages
    by Routledge

    306 Pages
    by Routledge

    Over the past two decades, legal thought and practice in Latin America have changed dramatically: new constitutions or constitutional reforms have consolidated democratic rule, fundamental innovations have been introduced in state institutions, social movements have turned to law to advance their causes, and processes of globalization have had profound effects on legal norms and practices. Law and Society in Latin America: A New Map offers the first systematic assessment by leading Latin American socio-legal scholars of the momentous transformations in the region.

    Through an interdisciplinary and comparative lens, contributors analyze the central advances and dilemmas of contemporary Latin American law. Among them are pioneering jurisprudence and legal mobilization for the fulfillment of socioeconomic rights in a highly unequal region, the rise of multicultural constitutionalism and legal struggles around identity politics, the globalization of legal education and practice, tensions between developmental policies and environmental justice, and the emergence of a regional human rights system. These and other processes have not only radically altered the institutional landscape of the region, but also produced academic and practical innovations that are of global interest and defy conventional accounts of Latin American law inherited from law-and-development studies.

    Painting a portrait of the new Latin American legal thought for an international audience, Law and Society in Latin America: A New Map will be of particular interest to students of comparative law, legal mobilization, and Latin American politics.

    1. Remapping Law and Society in Latin America: Visions and Topics for a New Legal Cartography  César Rodríguez-Garavito,  PART ONE: THE CONTEXT OF LATIN AMERICAN LAW,  2. Inequality and the Subversion of the Rule of Law  Oscar Vilhena Viera,  3. Constitution or Barbarism? How to Rethink Law in "Lawless" Spaces  Julieta Lemaitre Ripoll,  4. Ineffectiveness of the Law and the Culture of Noncompliance with Rules in Latin America  Mauricio García Villegas,  PART TWO: CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM AND LEGAL CULTURE  5. Latin American Constitutionalism: Social Rights and the "Engine Room" of the Constitution  Roberto Gargarella,  6. The Recent Transformation of Constitutional Law in Latin America: Trends and Challenges  Rodrigo Uprimny,  7. Constitutions in Action: The Impact of Judicial Activism on Socioeconomic Rights in Latin America  César Rodríguez-Garavito,  PART THREE: THE MULTICULTURAL TURN: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES RIGHTS  8. Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Law in Latin America  Rachel Sieder,  9. The Panorama of Pluralist Constitutionalism: From Multiculturalism to Decolonization  Raquel Z. Yrigoyen Fajardo,  PART FOUR: TRANSNATIONAL LEGAL PROCESSES AND HUMAN RIGHTS  10. Autonomy and Subsidiarity: The Inter-American System of Human Rights vs. National Justice Systems  Víctor Abramovich,  11. Persistent Problems And Emerging Challenges Relating to Freedom of Expression in the Americas  Catalina Botero Marino,  12. Inter-American Constitutionalism: The Interaction between Human Rights and Progressive Constitutional Law in Latin America  Jorge Contesse,  13. Judicial Review and Rights Protection in Latin America: The Debate on the Regionalization of Activism  Francisca Pou Giménez,  14. Citizen Insecurity and Human Rights: Toward the Deconstruction of the Security Discourse and a New Criminal Law  Ramilo Ávila

    Biography

    César Rodríguez-Garavito is Associate Professor of Law and founding Director of the Program on Global Justice and Human Rights at the University of the Andes.